Governance

Residents of Bengaluru are now hiring private surveyors to measure their property, which is marked for road widening by BBMP. This is because the BBMP's Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) notices do not provide detailed information on how much land will be required for acquisition.In April this year, residents of Golden Corner Apartments on Sarjapur Road received a notice from the BBMP, informing them about acquisition of a portion of their property for road widening. The notice says the road is to be widened by 45 feet and that the Apartment Association should submit land records using the Transfer of…

Water purifier in JP Nagar ParkA water purifier attached to a 300 litre water tank has been installed in JP Nagar Dhanvantari Park on May 27th. This was an initiative of Canara Bank, JP Nagar Branch, in association with JP Nagar Citizens Association. Children drinking water at the park. Pic: Chetan Boray. BBMP South Zone Horticulture Superintendent, Nagappa Atturkar says “Even though we have water facility in all the parks there is no water purifier. It is costly to invest on water purifiers, so we so encourage such initiatives.” He also confirmed that this is the first time, a water…

Take today’s news (June 3, 2010). Two reports are highlighted, one about Bangalore’s horrendous road fatalities (second highest in the country after Delhi, with over 860 deaths annually, and over 6,100 injured) and the other about a wall collapse that killed a 17-year-old girl. The compound wall had been built by the BBMP just three months ago. The girl had taken shelter next to it as it was raining, and the wall collapsed, crushing her underneath. Bad enough. But what is outrageous is the lack of accountability – the BBMP had parcelled out the work of erecting a short stretch…

In response to a Right to Information (RTI) application that was filed by RTI-activist M V K Anil Kumar, the state government's Department of Town and Country Planning responded to a question on what the procedure is to appoint various town planners in the town planning department, BDA, BBMP and other civic bodies.These rules are as per the Karnataka Town Planning Department Services (Recruitment) Rules, 1996. For the post of Director of Town Planning, the method of recruitment is only through promotion from the cadre of Joint Director of Town Planning. For this a person must possess a post-graduate degree…

To the casual observer, power cuts in the city have been erratic and without warning, however, BESCOM officials say these are very much scheduled.Three months ago, on February 25th 2010, BESCOM issued a notification on when there will be power cuts for domestic, commercial and industrial feeders. This was in view of the upcoming summer season. The notification had said that there will be two hours of power cuts everyday in batches – one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. For example, power is cut off in an area between 7 and 8 am in the…

Recently a certain type of vehicle mugging cases is on the rise. They seem to be targeting IT employees specifically.The areas that have been targeted are around Iblur junction, between Iblur and Marathahalli, or Iblur to Kaikondrahalli or Kaikondrahalli to Wipro.  Timings is usually between 11 am to 4 pm. The offenders are riding a black Pulsar.  They are two or three of them. The vehicle has a kannada registration number plate. Identification marks: One person is stout and has a dark complexion. Another one is lean with medium complexion.MODUS OPERANDI They stop your vehicle on a pretext, saying that…

At a time when Bengaluru is facing acute water shortage, call it ironic that over 400 half-litre bottles (costing Rs 8 each) of mineral water were consumed during the two-day special ‘water' session of the BBMP council. Only one corporator, Congress's K Poornima (Basavanapura, Ward 53) pointed out to this, requesting Mayor S K Nataraj to ensure that smaller bottles are provided or to make it compulsory for all corporators to carry the bottles back with them instead of leaving them in the council hall, half-consumed. Poornima's appeal may well have fallen on deaf ears. It is unfortunate that many…

For a majority of them, it was their first ever chance to speak as people's representatives. That too on a pressing issue. As BWSSB Chairman P B Ramamurthy put it, "It was a golden opportunity. I couldn't have got so much information from anywhere else". For two days, corporators from across Bengaluru voiced their concerns over water-related problems in their wards. Demands for borewells, jetting machines, regular desilting and replacement of old pipes with new ones, were made. Complaints ranged from lack of cooperation from local BWSSB officials, to the need to hold monthly meetings with engineers. The occasional bouquet…

In the two-day BBMP council session on water, as each corporator spoke about the water problem in their wards, they all had one demand in common. Borewells. And more borewells."I need 20 borewells in my ward", said one. "Give me 10-15 borewells", said another. At the end of the session, as BWSSB Chairman P B Ramamurthy announced the various projects taken up by the Board, the corporators requested him to mention the immediate plan of action to address the water crisis and demanded a response to how many borewells were going to be installed immediately. Mayor S K Nataraj and…

At the two-day special BBMP council session on water, Mayor S K Nataraj and BWSSB Chairman P B Ramamurthy made a slew of announcements to address the water crisis in Bengaluru. These include both short-term and long-term measures to improve infrastructure and ensure water supply to all.Here are announcements made by the BWSSB:111 Assistant Executive Engineers (AEE) are being recruited. The process will be completed in the next 15 days193 valve men are being recruited. This will also be completed in the next two weeks78 sanitary workers will be recruited. The BWSSB has only 136 sanitary workers currently, apart from…