Governance

I sat on a plastic chair at the party office, waiting for the MLA at the BJP’s temporary office during campaigning at Yelahanka New Town. In the portico outside, under the shamiana there were some party workers clad in the traditional white, friends of the MLA waiting for him,  and a ubiquitous chai-wallah.  When the MLA came, he was surrounded by a horde of workers, colleagues and well wishers. It looked like he had a busy schedule and I was doubtful of getting any questions answered. However, he was courteous, prompt and gave pertinent answers. S R Vishwanath is a…

BBMP has introduced new application forms IV and V  for the year 2009-10 and updated the online calculator in their website.  I have found the following anomalies in both and wrote to the Commissioner, DC Revenue and other officials . So far nobody has replied; none of the  mistakes have yet been corrected. The anomalies are going to affect the entire public in the BBMP areas as the rules and columns in the forms and calculator are contradictory.            #1.  The Instructions to the Tax Payer at S.No.2 in the Forms state that "Depreciation cannot be claimed for 2009-10 and 2010-11…

Now that most of us have paid the property taxes for the year 2008-09 by filling the appropriate form (From I-for properties with PID no./ Form II-for properties having only KATHA no./ Form III-for properties with neither PID nor KATHA no.), it is time to start paying the taxes for the current year. A small quantum of forms have reached the Help Centres and are of two different types – White (Form IV) in bilingual & Blue (Form V)For properties, where there is no change in any field – either in CATEGORY (rented out/non-residential), or DIMENSIONS (Any addition/deletion to the…

Bangalore's administrators have been long-accused of letting down the public.  Cases abound from corruption in tendering to recklessness and negligence in execution of works. This month S Subramanya, BBMP Commissioner was transferred after a debacle over the washing away of a boy in a monsoon downpour. Just before that he was involved in a public spat with the head of the anti-corruption watchdog, Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde. Despite its status of a toothless tiger, the Lokayukta has still been able to deliver justice for complainants from the humblest of backgrounds - poor citizens who have been victimised or deprived…

On Saturday May 23rd, Meta-Culture Dialogics (MCD) convened the tenth session of its popular community dialogue series, Bengaluru Speaks. Held at the Ashirvad Community Centre, the dialogue explored the topic: “Dare to be an Agent of Change? Your wish list for the new government.” The Bangalorean participants varied in age and profession, and there was a fairly equal ratio of men to women. To kick-off the dialogue, the Meta-Culture facilitators asked the participants to reflect on the election campaigns and results. Many participants felt the candidates put forward party-oriented issues instead of focusing on social development. Some participants said they…

On 25 June 2007, the erstwhile Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy handpicked the new Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner, S Subramanya. Circa 2009. Unable to trace the body of a 6-year-old who apparently fell into a storm water drain and a defamation case against Lok Ayukta Santhosh Hegde, Subramanya gets transferred, apparently after causing much embarrassment to the BJP government. Is it justified to hold Subramanya responsible for the death of Abhishek? Should he have done the work of a drain inspector? Was the transfer an answer to the problems of the public? Citizen Matters has also received claims…

How many of you did not get to vote in the Lok Sabha elections because you couldn’t find your name in the electoral list? While many people scrambled to register their names, a factory found itself in the list with its gender and father's name specified. Pramod Goni a social worker who lives near the factory, says Printflex factory was registered under the electoral list of Constituency No 151 and Polling Part No 239 in Nagappa Reddy and Kushal (NRK) Layout in Mahadevapura. The factory is located on Nagappa Reddy Layout Main Road. The electoral officer listed ‘Printflex’ as the…

Dinesh Gundu Rao (Congress) was first given an MLA ticket in 1999. He won from the Gandhinagar constituency and has won for three times now from the same constituency. Dinesh Gundu Rao Rao did his schooling from Bishop Cottons in Bangalore. He graduated in Electronics and Communication from BMS College of Engineering in 1992. He ran a computer training centre with a few others for some time after graduation while simultaneously participating in Congress party activities.  Click here for the complete profile. I called Rao on his mobile. He asked me to come to his office where I landed the…

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has released a list of  property owners who have paid the property tax for their properties for the year 2008-09 on their website. I do appreciate the efforts they have put to collate the enormous amount of data, but the list is defective in several aspects.It is very difficult to locate one's name in the list due to the following reasons:Mismatch in addressesThe ARO office, the Ward Name and the Street given in the website do not match with what was given in the property tax application form. The result is that you may possibly…

Almost a year after Bengaluru got its first centrally controlled traffic management system the traffic police claims to have achieved smoother traffic and caught more violators. The traffic police have collected Rs 5.8 crores in fine amounts in 2008 after the new systems were put in place mid year, and Rs 3.14 crores in 2009 till date. "All these fines were possible because of (our) enforcement management system," claims Praveen Sood, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic and Security. Praveen Sood, Shankar Bidri, Ashwin Mahesh in the Traffic Management Centre (pic: Supriya Khandekar) At a recent press meet at the Traffic…