Governance

In the run-up to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections scheduled before the end of this calendar year, Bengaluru’s civil society organisations are getting more active to highlight civic issues that need urgent attention. As a first step, on June 24th, the Civil Society Forum (a coalition of civil society groups based in Bengaluru) submitted its “Manifesto for Development of Bengaluru in next five years” to senior representatives of political parties. The manifesto does not pull any punches. When it says, for instance; “Local self-government, with transparency, accountability and people’s participation, as envisaged in the 74th Constitutional Amendment (CAA)…

On July 12th, Citizen Matters hosted a panel discussion on the National Youth Policy in collaboration with Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), a non-profit developmental organisation that enables vulnerable groups to access their rights.  Moderated by Sabah Virani, Reporter at Citizen Matters Mumbai, the panel consisted of YUVA Project Lead, Youth Work, Sachin Nachnekar and youth activists from YUVA in Mumbai named Pranaya Patade, Shehenshah Ansari, Sana Shaikh, Asma Ansari, and Swapnil Shinde.  All of them had earlier participated in consultations that YUVA organised to understand the youth’s perspective on the new draft National Youth Policy (NYP), an…

A new government portal is all set to ease the process of getting notary services for various documentation purposes including agreements and contracts. e-UDBHAVAM is the online portal from the new National E-Governance Services Ltd (NeSL) administrative office in Bengaluru. NeSL is India’s first Information Utility and is registered with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC). R Ashoka, Minister, Revenue Department, Government of Karnataka, launched the portal on April 25th, 2022. One needs notary services for various documents, which can be a hassle to obtain considering only certain entities are…

Translated by Sandhya Raju “தமிழக அரசே தமிழக அரசே, சாக வேண்டுமா நாங்கள்? அப்போ தான் பார்ப்பாயா?” சென்னை குடி நீர் & கழிவு நீர் பெரு வாரியம் தலைமை அலுவலகத்தின் முன்பு தொடர்ந்து  10 நாட்கள் 1500 தற்காலிக தொழிலாளர்கள் எழுப்பிய கோஷம் இது. தனியார் ஒப்பந்தகாரர்களுக்கு ஒவுட்சோர்ஸ் முடிவை எதிர்த்தும் இவர்களின் கோரிக்கைகளை நிராகரிக்கப்பட்டதை எதிர்த்தும் இவர்கள் போராட்டம் நடத்தினர்.  கடந்த சில ஆண்டுகளாக வேகமான வளர்ச்சியை சென்னை அடைந்தாலும், பல முக்கிய துறைகளில் அனுமதிக்கப்பட்ட பணியிடங்கள் நிரப்பப்படாமல் அல்லது கணிசமாக குறைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. முக்கியமான அத்தியாவசிய பணிகளான திடக்கழிவு மேலாண்மை, குடி நீர் வினியோகம், சுகாதாரம், மின்வாரியம் என பல துறைகளில் தற்காலிக அல்லது ஒப்பந்த அடிப்படையில் பணிபுரிபவர்கள் பாதுகாப்பற்ற சூழலில் பணிபுரிகிறார்கள்.   சென்னை குடி நீர் வாரிய தற்காலிக பணியார்களின் போராட்டம் சரியான நேரத்தில் சாலையில் மண் அகற்றப்பட்டு, கழிவு நீர் அடைப்புகள் அகற்றப்பட்டு,குடி நீர்…

K Karthik, Councillor for Ward 7 has spent a decade in politics. He belongs to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). His foray into politics came after stints in corporate HR at firms such as Pepsico and the Murugappa Group. In 2011, Karthik became a full-time politician, following in the footsteps of his father K Kuppan. K Kuppan serves as MLA from Thiruvottiyur in the 14th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. He contested unsuccessfully from the same constituency in the 2021 Assembly Elections. Citizen Matters caught up with Karthik in his office at Aniruth Park, a hotel he owns…

In today’s employment scenario, the race to get a government job, any job, can get real ugly. Recruitment to the armed forces is particularly sought after. The main reasons that tend to turn any government recruitment scheme into a subject of controversy, at times leading to violent protests. A recent Railway recruitment process had to be scrapped for precisely those reasons. Now, a new recruitment scheme for the armed forces has seen violent protests in states like UP, Rajasthan and Bihar. Vehicles and trains were burnt by angry protestors who saw in the scheme a plot to deny them permanent…

May 17th was a bad day for residents of three low-lying lanes at HBR 5th Block Layout, near Manyata Tech Park. That day's heavy downpour saw all their homes being flooded, causing losses of tens of thousands of rupees. K Sai Kiran, a resident, estimates his loss at Rs 79,000 from the heavy rain that day. This includes Rs 50,000 for damaged furniture, Rs 10,000 to fix damaged electrical appliances, Rs 15,000 for car repair, and Rs 4,000 to clean up the house. Another resident Vijay estimates his loss at Rs 60,000 from similar damage. Ashwini Sreetama says her losses…

After a long delay, the state government notified the draft of the BBMP ward delimitation report on Thursday, June 23rd. Delimitation would change ward boundaries and increase the number of wards in the city from 198 to 243. The Ward Delimitation Committee, headed by the BBMP Chief Commissioner, submitted the draft report to the government on June 9th. This committee was to redraw ward boundaries based on population data from the 2011 Census. Read more: BBMP elections: Major parties have ready promises, new ones talk citizen empowerment The Karnataka state government's notification on 23rd June mentions it has accepted the…

The handover process with all its financial, operational and technical aspects can be hard to nail down. Yet, it is the most pressing challenge as an association prepares to run the affairs of a community. Issues like late handover and defects within the apartment are common complaints of most individual apartment owners taking possession of their new property. At an association level, however, issues are even more complex and often ignored. The issues range from major defects, incomplete construction, lack of documentation, improper handover of maintenance corpus etc. In a new apartment, a freshly constituted Association’s Managing Committees (MC) may…

B Vimala, the councillor of Ward 41, part of the RK Nagar assembly constituency, sits in a modest office above the ward's Amma Unavagam, just off a busy street, a hub of activity. On the wall behind her hangs a picture of veteran Communist leader N Sankaraiah. A member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)), this is 30-year-old Vimala's first term as a councillor. Vimala has been with the CPI(M) for the past ten years. Her political journey began as part of the youth wing of the party, the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). She decided…