Articles by Navya P K

In Part 2 of this series, we wrote about how over a thousand families forcibly evicted from the Ejipura slum in 2013 are yet to be rehabilitated. At the time of their eviction, these residents were promised alternative accommodation at a new EWS (Economically Weaker Section) quarters in Sulikunte, along Sarjapur Road. The new quarters were built in 2017. But less than 400 families live there presently, almost a decade after their eviction. The reason: the city corporation BBMP lacks clarity on who the deserving beneficiaries are. As per BBMP's records, 792 out of the 900 flats in Sulikunte have…

Lakshmi, a resident of Chikka Banaswadi in Bangalore, and the 30 other families who live there, have no access to water. Lakshmi buys nine plastic pots of water every day from shops nearby paying Rs 2 per pot. Even if each pot holds 20 litres, nine pots give Lakshmi, her husband and two children, just 180 litres of water per day for drinking, bathing, washing dishes, etc., whereas the Centre's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs recommends daily water supply of 135 litres per capita in urban areas. Lakshmi, who lives in a slum in Chikka Banaswadi, spends Rs 18…

Bengaluru city makes up only 6% of the Arkavathy river basin area, but is a major contributor to the river's pollution. Similar is the case with Vrushabhavathi river. Wastewater from industrial areas like Peenya, along with domestic sewage, is choking these rivers. Downstream, these rivers join the Cauvery, from which water is pumped up to meet the city's needs. This effectively means that the wastewater dumped by the city comes right back to it. This was illustrated in a presentation made by Nirmala Gowda, co-founder of the paani.earth website that maps the rivers of Karnataka. Nirmala was speaking at a…

Over the years, Bengalureans have protested against a number of infrastructure projects that they believed went against public interest. For example the protests against the proposed elevated road corridors in 2019. Or the recent protests against metro construction on All Saints' Church land. While the protests mentioned above were successful, many others were not. Citizens often are unable to get government agencies to listen to their concerns. In many cases, they become aware of the details of a project only when construction starts. But public consultations at multiple stages are mandatory for public infrastructure projects as per the Karnataka Town…

This January, as part of a larger programme to make all bus travel free, Boston city set aside eight million dollars to introduce free bus travel on certain routes. Making bus travel free was first tried out in US in the 1970s. The idea caught on and by 2017, 96 such programmes have been recorded globally. In India, Delhi has presently made free bus travel free for women. Can Bengaluru think along similar lines? The city's bus network BMTC (Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation) currently has among the highest fares in the country, making it unaffordable to many. Besides, the city…

In January 2013, the BBMP forcibly evicted over 5,000 people from Ejipura slum, near Koramangala. Those who protested faced police action and detention. The residents, who were paying rent of Rs 1,000-1,500 for the tin sheds there were too poor to afford rent elsewhere. They also felt cheated - in the mid-2000s, the BBMP Council had passed a resolution that they would be provided flats, and had issued them 'guruthina cheetis' (ID cards). After their eviction, these people were left to fend for themselves. Some lived on the pavements, some left the city, some found accommodation elsewhere, and a few…

Bengaluru's ward committees have been chaired by nodal officers appointed on a temporary basis by the BBMP ever since the last Council's term ended in September 2020. They were mostly senior municipal officials who happened to reside in that particular ward. Before this temporary arrangement, formal ward committee included 10 citizens nominated from the ward, and were mandated to meet twice a month. Chaired by the elected ward councillor and attended by ward officials, these meetings were supposed to decide on ward-level budget, plan, prioritise and monitor works. Now, there are no formal ward committees, but nodal officers chair the…

A silent midnight drama was played out on March 31st. The 2022-23 BBMP budget got uploaded silently on its official website with no budget speech document attached or any opportunity for the media or anyone else to ask questions. True, the circumstances were somewhat unusual. The BBMP had recently been brought under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which imposed some basic conditions of fiscal responsibility on the BBMP in its budget making and spending processes. But a cursory perusal of the budget indicates that it is very much business as usual in the BBMP. The total budget outlay for the current…

Ashwin, 27, an IT employee. Sharmila, 38, teacher. Khurshid Ahmed, 65, madrassa teacher and vendor. Tasdik Bushra, 19, MBBS student. These four Bengaluru citizens have only one thing in common--they all lost their lives recently due to potholes and poorly-maintained roads. In many cases, the victims were thrown off their two-wheelers, or hit/run over by other vehicles when they swerved to avoid potholes. According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Bengaluru was the city to register the maximum such cases (18) in 2020, as per data from the NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau). With a series of such incidents…

N Krishna remembers it was precisely 4.49 pm on November 9th, 2003, when the block next to his government-allotted flat in Ejipura collapsed. It was just moments ago that Krishna had been inside the block, built for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in the 1990s, along with a photographer and BBMP engineer whom he had invited to inspect the damaged building. "People outside saw the block collapsing and shouted at us to come out, so we escaped," he said. (Some residents have lost their lives in similar collapses.) Krishna and his family had happily moved into the newly built EWS…