Articles by Vivek Vaidyanathan

Personal Info | Assets & Liabilities | Positions Held | Performance | Local Issues | MPLAD Funds  P C Mohan is a first-time Lok Sabha MP who represents Bangalore Central constituency. The constituency comprises of Rajanjinagar, Chamrajpet, Gandhinagar, Shivajinagar, Shantinagar, Sarvagnanagar, C V Raman Nagar and Mahadevpaura assembly constituencies. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Mohan (BJP) defeated H T Sangliana (INC) by over 35,000 votes. In the past, Mohan has been an MLA in the Karnataka Assembly on two occasions. Mohan contested the Karnataka Assembly Elections in 2013 and lost by a significant margin. However, if the rumours in the party circle are to be believed, he is going…

Personal Info | Assets & Liabilities | Positions Held | Performance | Local Issues | Controversy Count | MPLAD Funds D B Chandre Gowda is a veteran politician who was elected to Lok Sabha from Bangalore North Constituency in 2009 elections. Bangalore North Lok Sabha constituency comprises of Yeshwantpura, Dasarahalli, Mahalakshmi Layout, Malleshwaram, Hebbal, Pulakeshinagar, Byatarayanapura and K.R Puram assembly constituencies. In 2009, as a BJP candidate, he saw off competition from his nearest rival, C K Jaffer Sharief (INC). Chandre Gowda secured 45% of the votes as opposed to 39% by Sharief. Pic:http://www.dbchandregowda.in Profile of D B Chandre Gowda Name: D.B. Chandre Gowda Age: 77 Date of Birth: 26 August…

Personal Info | Assets & Liabilities | Positions Held | Performance | Local Issues | MPLAD Funds | Controversy Count   Ananth Kumar is a five-time Lok Sabha MP who represents the Bangalore South constituency. The constituency comprises of Govindraj Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Chickpet, Padmanabha Nagar, Bommanahalli, Basavanagudi, BTM Layout and Jayanagar assembly constituencies. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Kumar defeated Krishna Byregowda (INC), a sitting MLA for Byatarayanapura, by a margin of over 37,000 votes. In the past, when the NDA regime was in power, Kumar was a Union Cabinet Minister serving multiple ministries including Civil Aviation, Urban…

The BMTC has been the city’s lifeline for many years carrying about 40- 45% of its commuters. With a fleet of over 6000 buses, the corporation can claim to have a significant presence in comparison to other city bus providers. The BMTC is also a monopoly in the sense that private bus companies are not allowed to ferry passengers on a mass transit basis. Significantly, one of the strongest points of BMTC has been that it has largely been a profit-making body since its inception in the late 90s (when it was created out of the then BTS which was…

I had the opportunity to attend a Children's Ward Sabha in Vijnana Nagar on February 23rd. It was organised by CWC (The Concerned for Working Children), an NGO for child rights.A Ward Sabha in urban areas is similar to a Gram Sabha in rural areas, wherein citizens of a village come together to voice their demands from elected representatives; these demands are supposed to be incorporated in the development package for that area. In 2006, based on the experience of other countries which have such children's sabhas, the Karnataka government took the initiative of making children's gram sabhas mandatory in…

  A few days ago, I was having lunch at a restaurant in Jayanagar 4th Block which offered an excellent view of the Cool Joint junction. A surprise checkpost set up by three traffic policeman close to the junction was the highlight of my lunch. During the course of half-an-hour, the police stopped 16-17 vehicles with no apparent discrimination between autos, two wheelers, four wheelers and goods vehicles. The policeman would stand behind a tree and suddenly step in front of the vehicle of his choice to make sure that there was no escaping the long arm of the law.…

The other day I was having a rather interesting conversation/debate with some of my colleagues and friends which I thought was worth reporting here. This was a conversation about equity in Bangalore's BMTC buses. My friends were analyzing equity and accessibility in BMTC buses. Somehow the conversation veered towards the topic of Volvo buses and whether the city needs different kinds of buses, and this is where there was a sharp difference of opinion between my friends' thoughts and my own.My friends were of the opinion that there shouldn't be different kinds of buses for different kinds of people. By…

Just yesterday, I had my first run in with the Karnataka High Court. I was attending a court case involving the construction of a road through the GKVK - UAS campus by the BBMP and its subsequent challenge by ex vice-chancellors of that University (For an understanding of the case at hand, refer to this article written in Citizen Matters). Just being in that court room, seeing lawyers presenting their case, judges going through the evidence presented, petitioners and defendants arguing vehemently, nervous interns, curious onlookers - in short the entire package brought back interesting memories when I was involved…

In a previous article which appeared in Citizen Matters a month ago, I talked about the fact as to how Bangalore was becoming another Mumbai (a concrete jungle, without any open spaces and hardly any greenery ). And although I have moved to another city in another continent (Delft, Netherlands) to pursue a PhD in trying to understand the ‘institutional & governance side of urban transportation' (in which I will be studying four cities including Bangalore), I cannot help but read about the latest developments in Bangalore through news reports which seem to suggest that the administration (municipal and state)…

The other day, a friend from Hasiru Usiru got news that some trees were being felled at a construction site near the Indian Express building. A few people including me went to investigate and see if we could do anything about it.  It didn't take us very long to discover the site. When this group reached the spot, we discovered that trees had not been felled as yet, but branches of one tree had been pruned and pruned rather extensively. On asking the contractors if they intended to cut the trees which were in the vicinity, they said that they…