Governance

Bangalore Apartments' Federation (BAF) has strongly condemned Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for its unilateral, unreasonable and illegal penalisation of apartments which have not been able to do in situ composting. BAF is a not-for-profit organisation with a membership base of over 500 apartment complexes across Bengaluru, representing almost one lakh households and three lakh people. Elaborating on Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, Vikram Rai, Treasurer and SWM Lead of BAF, said, “The SWM Rules of 2016 - notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on 8th April 2016 - mandates only waste segregation. It neither mandates…

The central region of the Greater Chennai Corporation is diverse: it has Ayanavaram which is crying for basic amenities, semi-urban Ambattur that has been incorporated into the civic body only in 2011, Anna Nagar that has great connectivity but grave traffic woes, Kodambakkam, the trader hub and Teynampet, the commercial hotspot of  the city. “Before charting out plans for these localities, it is important to understand their nature,” said P N Sridhar IAS, the Regional Deputy Commissioner of Chennai Central, as we caught up with him for an exclusive interview.  We see a huge disparity in terms of development in…

Ward committees are supposed to make citizens the co-decision makers in governance of their ward. The idea is to entrust citizens with ward-level planning, budgeting and monitoring of BBMP services/schemes, and to leave corporators to focus on broader systemic issues of the city. But a recent study by Sensing Local Foundation revealed that the ward committees in Bengaluru were mostly ineffective. The foundation studied ward committees across 22 wards over four months, from July to October. The researchers found that while citizens were keen to attend the meetings, corporators often didn’t turn up, and the ward committee members didn't resolve issues…

Bengaluru is at a historic juncture today. The State Government has recently made some big-ticket announcements as far as the bus is concerned, announcements which if followed up with their implementation as announced, will change the face of Bangalore. This Saturday, December 7, will see a discussion on what all is needed to transform Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation's (BMTC) public service into one which serves all and serves well.    Bengaluru's transformation from the laid back garden city with a pleasant climate into a massively built up concrete megapolis of people and vehicles infamous for its traffic happened to a…

How many domestic workers know that they are entitled to a monthly pension of Rs 1000 a month once they turn 58? Or, that the state government’s schemes to financially support the marriage and education of their children could be a real life saver for them? Forget the workers, even many employers, are not informed about it. “Unfortunately, the state government does not promote these schemes enough and a lot of domestic workers are ignorant about them,” said S Palaniammal, Organising Secretary of Pen tholilalar Sangam (Women Workers Union). The union with 30,000 workers fights for the social and financial…

Elected on a Congress ticket from Yeshvanthapura in the Karnataka Assembly polls 2018, MLA S T Somashekar was among the 17 legislators disqualified by former Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar, under the anti-defection law. Since Supreme Court allowed these MLAs to contest the bypolls, Somashekar is now contesting as the BJP candidate from Yeshvanthapura. Know your candidates Twelve candidates are contesting from Yeshvanthapura constituency. The nominations of two other candidates had been rejected. Following are the major candidates: P Nagaraj Indian National Congress Family: Spouse and one dependant Educational qualification: SSLC (discontinued) Profession: Self-employed Pending criminal cases: Nil Net worth…

On December 5th, by-elections will be held in four assembly constituencies in Bengaluru - Yeshwanthpur, KR Puram, Mahalakshmi Layout and Shivajinagar. In the first three of these, disqualified MLAs are returning as candidates, albeit from a different party. Former Congress MLAs S T Somshekar and Basavaraj Byrathi, and former JD(S) MLA K Gopalaiah, are now contesting as BJP candidates. They are coming back to you one and half years after you elected them. I wish I could tell you what development plan they have for your constituency. But I just couldn’t find anything on it except political statements. Yes, these…

The MLA seat in Mahalakshmi Layout constituency had become vacant after K Gopalaiah, the Janata Dal (Secular) MLA here, resigned to join the BJP. This had been a rude shock to the ruling JD(S)-Congress alliance, which had considered this a 'safe' seat in Bengaluru. K Gopalaiah had wrested the constituency from INC in 2013 and won again in 2018. This by-election, he's contesting from the constituency as the BJP candidate. Know your candidates Twelve candidates are contesting from Mahalakshmi Layout constituency. Three other candidates had withdrawn their nominations, and three others' were rejected. Following are the major candidates: M Shivaraju…

The MLA of KR Puram constituency, Basavaraj Byrathi, had resigned from the Congress party this July, after 'Operation Kamala 2.0'. He was said to be a loyalist of the Siddaramaiah faction, but apparently resigned as he had been denied a minister's post in the INC-JD(S) government. He is now contesting as the BJP candidate from the constituency. Know your candidates Thirteen candidates are contesting from KR Puram constituency in the bypolls. Two other candidates had withdrawn their nominations, and two others' were rejected. Here are the major candidates: M Narayanaswamy Indian National Congress Family: Spouse and three dependants Educational qualification:…

Constituency Shivajinagar Constituency K R Puram Constituency Mahalakshmi Layout Constituency Yeshvanthapura Constituency Data Find your constituency Search by EPIC card details How to vote Find your polling station Explainers What you can do when politicians try to influence votes with freebies What is your MLA allowed to spend local area development funds on? Illegal banners and buntings during elections: what can you do about it? https://citizenmatters.in/karnataka-legislative-assembly-mla-roles-responsibility-24290 https://citizenmatters.in/bangalore-101-december-2019-byelection-yeshwanthpur-mahalakshmi-layout-shivaji-nagar-kr-puram-constituencies-disqualified-mlas-39069 Voter guide: All you need to know before you cast your vote https://citizenmatters.in/all-you-need-to-know-before-casting-your-vote-this-lok-sabha-elections-11190/embed In countdown to 2019, here’s all you wanted to know about EVMs https://citizenmatters.in/electronic-voting-machines-evm-vvpat-controversy-politics-elections-2019-9649/embed