Articles by Yogaraj S Mudalgi

At 12 15 pm every Wednesday, a blue bus halts near Padmanabha Nagar BMTC bus stop. It is not a BMTC bus, however, and is one of the only two vehicles in Bangalore that travels around the city to satisfy the reading needs of bibliophiles. Board announcing the timings and contact details of the mobile library: Pic: Yogaraj S Mudalgi These are the government operated libraries on wheels. Within seconds of the blue bus pulling up near the bus stop, men and women board the bus, return books and browse for new ones to borrow. Returns and issues happen quickly…

On Saturday, 30th July, close to 80 students of St Joseph's College of Arts and Science at Langford Road, decided to have fun with a purpose. They gathered after classes to count the votes of the Jan Lokpal Citizen 'Referendum' that is being conducted by India Against Corruption (IAC). The scene resembled an examination hall as students counted the votes. Pic: Yogaraj S MudalgiIndia Against Corruption (IAC) has undertaken the initiative on a mammoth scale in a bid to give voice to the opinions of citizens of India on the subject of the Jan Lokpal Bill. Eight parliamentary constituencies across…

In Praveen Sood's latest post on Bangalore Traffic Police's (BTP) page on the popular social networking site, Facebook, the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), talks about one ways. Posted on 25th July, the post received more close to 15 comments by fans of the BTP page. The note titled, ‘One-way? Two-way? No Way!', talks about several one-ways being introduced in 2001 (Kempegowda, Richmond, Residency Road etc.,). Sood says that the decision to make them one-ways were made after a careful research undertaken by Bangalore Action Task Force (BATF) and not based on the whims of traffic police. He says that…

The Annual Generel Meeting (AGM) of Karnataka State Football Association (KSFA) was held on 24th July. A R Khaleel was re-elected as President of the Association for another term of two years. Before the President could be elected, Life members of KSFA elected the Governing Board members from among them. The following people were elected as Governing Board members.1. Abdul Jabbar2. Govindraj K3.Jayarajan N K4.Kantharaj(former ITI India footballer)5.Muniraj B K(former AGes and State footballer) 6.Puttaswamy T (Ground Curator and former footballer)7.Dr Rahmanj S A  (former Ref. Chairman)8. Rasheed S A 9. Sadat Ali Khan( Ex-MLA )10. Sampangiramaiah11. Sreedhar S R…

The Karnataka State Hockey Association, 'B' Division Hockey League Championship began on the 22nd of July and will go on till the 21st of August. The championship follows the recently concluded 'C' Division League which saw Bellary Hockey Club beat Ideal Sports Club from KGF, 1-0 at the finals which was held on 15th July earlier this month.Twenty six teams from across the State will battle it out on the turf in 62 matches for the 'B' Division Championship. Some of the teams include Kodava Samaj, Coorg Hockey Association, S B M Jain College, HMT, State Bank of India, A…

Karnataka is fielding the second largest contingent after hosts Tamil Nadu, of girls and boys totaling 23 in the Billiards & Snooker Nationals at Chennai. The team, name "Jubiliant Juniors" will represent the State in the tournamen which started on July 18th and will go on till Augus 9th. The Juniors including defending champions Mundir Sherazi (Billiards), Varsha Sanjeev (Billiards) who have trained hard at Karnataka State Billiards Association (KSBA) for the last one year are being fine tuned by Dronocharya Arvind Savur and Coach M K Sharma.Along with the Juniors, Chitra Magimairaj and Uma Devi in women's section with…

Cyclists no longer have to scramble for parking space when they visit Lalbagh through the South Gate. On Sunday, 10th July, a bicycle stand was opened to the public by Suresh Kumar, Minister for Urban Development. Speaking at the inauguration, Suresh Kumar, a supporter of bicycle for commuting, said that there is a need for a clean and green way of commuting. He added that he would make provisions to create cycling infrastructure at bus and metro stations so that commuters can make effective use of public transport. Newly installed cycle racks at lalbagh. Pic Courtesy: RAC-F The event was…

JP Nagar Citizens’ Association (JPNCA)has a new set of office bearers. The 15 members were elected during a general body meeting on 26th June and 27th June. JPNCA has one thousand members from six phases of JP Nagar. The new President M A Chowdappa succeeds Dr D B Meundi, a two-time President. The office bearers are elected for a term of two years and can be re-elected for a maximum of another term. Chowdappa, 71, a former advisor in the Ministry of Telecom has been living in JP Nagar for the past 10 years. When asked about what are plans…

A BTM resident, Kumar Lakshmikanthan, 72, a retired Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) employee, wrote to us about the pathetic state of footpath on 7th cross and 7th main BTM II Stage. “The footpaths have been paved with expensive cobble stone but most of it is occupied by street hawkers and shops. Pedestrians are forced to use the road,” he says. Raw materials for building construction too are dumped on the footpath. When Citizen Matters contacted ward councilor G N R Babu, he feigned helplessness on the issue. “I have complained several times to the Health department about this.…

The two-day festival will have an eclectic mix of artistes both local and national. Residents of north-east Bengaluru will be treated to a classical music extravaganza with Whitefield Music Festival kicking off is first edition this Saturday, 9th July. The two day event, spread over the weekend will see a wide variety of performances from artistes at Jagriti Theatre in Whitefield. The event is being organised by Whitefield Music Circle, a group formed by residents of Whitefield. The concerts will be held between 4 - 8pm. Manoj Pai, one of the members says, "we felt that this side of the…