Articles by Navya P K

A day after the fire mishap in a marriage hall in Sumanahalli, a Reliance Footprint outlet in Koramangala caught fire on September 22nd. The footwear outlet is located along the 80 feet road in VII Block that connects Forum Mall with National Games Village. Firemen at work as smoke billows out. Pic: Navya P K. The first floor of the building caught fire by 1.15 pm on Thursday, but no one was injured. "People evacuated themselves on seeing the fire, so no one was hurt. The extent of damage to property has not been ascertained yet. Electric short circuit is…

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahnagara Palike (BBMP) may have passed some major decisions in the last few years - including increase in taxes, and road widening and infrastructure projects worth hundreds of crores of rupees. But none of these decisions were ever passed by a vote in the city council. And this, in a city of over eight million people with massive problems ranging from inadequate affordable housing to dying lakes and property tax holes to roadwidening resentment. The Karnataka Municipal Corporation Rules (Rule 65 in Conduct of Business Rules), says a vote should be held if councillors press for it.…

Litter bins, which almost disappeared from Bangalore's landscape some time back, may make a comeback this year. BBMP's Solid Waste Management (SWM) department has plans to re-introduce litter bins as part of its new policy.Solid waste tenders, compost/dry waste centres, decentralised biogas centres are all part of the new policy. In draft stage now, the policy has to be approved first by the Standing Committee for Health and then by the BBMP Council. "The policy will probably go for Council's approval next month. Currently we have no integrated policy; the new policy will be a guideline for all officials," says…

In the first half of 2011 alone, 1172 fire cases were reported in Bengaluru (BBMP) limits, says a top Karnataka fire department official. Following the High Court's ruling on a PIL filed by the Beyond Carlton group, the state government issued a notification on July 7 this year. The notification mandates co-ordination between BBMP and the state's Fire and Emergency Services department to check for fire safety in high rises.High rises (buildings with height above 15 m) are supposed to abide by safety norms of BBMP's building bye-laws, RMP (Revised Master Plan) and NBC (National Building Code). Unlike earlier, the…

When the BBMP budget was passed on Saturday, September 3rd, 171 corporators had got additional grants for ward works. While the allocation was Rs 1-4 crore for most wards, the highest allocation was for Mayor Sharadamma's ward Shettihalli (ward number 12). Mayor's ward received Rs 15 cr.The second highest allocation was Rs 8 cr, for Deputy Mayor S Harish's ward Nagapura (67). Rs 5 cr were allocated to Shanthinagar (117) and BTM layout (176), both of which are represented by Congress.The additional ward grants have taken the budget outlay from the earlier Rs 9196 cr to Rs 9380 cr. This…

The Vidyapeeta ITI layout in Kathriguppe relinquished four parks to BDA as per layout plan sanction regulations. But instead of handing over these parks to BBMP for maintenance, BDA granted two parks to private parties; none of the four sites are parks now. The layout residents have been fighting for proper use of these sites since 1995. In HAL 2nd stage, BDA leased out a CA site of 21,900 sq ft to Indiranagar Social Welfare Trust in 1991. The lease was for 30 years on annual rent of Rs 2, on the condition that the Trust would build educational institutions…

He is one the world's foremost authorities on public transportation, and in particular bus systems. He led the transformation of bus transport in his home city of Bogota, Columbia and has since been involved a host of cities around the world.Dario Hidalgo is in Bangalore for a few days and he and his team of people from EMBARQ, an international organisation that develops sustainable transport solutions, are training BMTC officials on improving it's BIG-10 services. EMBARQ works with local transport authorities in developing countries to help them adopt best international practices. Dario Hidalgo, is Director at EMBARQ. EMBARQ works with…

The BBMP budget was presented on 18 August, the discussions on budget went on for four days - from August 23-26. Some opposition leaders raised their points and asked for clarifications during the session. There were no official responses were given on the same day. The voting on the budget will be held on Saturday, September 3. BBMP budget discusion in progress. Pic: Yogaraj S Mudalgi Congress councillor M Nagaraj (Nandini Layout Ward 43), who was the opposition leader last yearAllocation is not equal for all wards; some have too many works proposed and others few. Many works proposed in…

During the launch of her book 'The Bad Boy's Guide to the Good Indian Girl' this month in Bangalore, co-author Annie Zaidi talked about a friend in college. Though Annie was close to her friend for three years, she never realised that her friend used to smoke through college even though smoking was banned in campus. It was many years later, when they met again, that Annie came to know about this.The book by Annie and Smriti Ravindran explains why Good Indian Girls (GIGs, as they are called in the book) have to be ashamed of something as simple as…

A commercial building located in between Fortis Hospital and Apollo Hospital along Bannerghatta road in Bengaluru is being demolished by the BBMP since August 19. The building, ‘Amalodhbhala Tower', is located in one part of a 2 acre 32 guntas government land which was encroached by the complex's owner, one Shantharaju. About half the demolition of 'Amalodhbala Tower' was complete by August 22. Pic: Navya P K. This encroachment was mentioned in the report of V Balasubramanian (IAS, Retd.), Chairman of the Task Force for Recovery and Protection of Public Lands, which was published in June. In addition to Shantharaju,…