Articles by Srinivas Alavilli

The Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike has launched a joint campaign with Citizens for Bengaluru called the 'Bus Bhagya Beku' campaign, that demands the State Government to provide financial support to BMTC to 'Halve the Fares, and Double the Fleet'. About 50 lakh commuters use BMTC services every day, thus making BMTC the backbone of Bangalore city. And yet, this mode of public transport is highly neglected, and too expensive for many to use. In addition, traffic congestion in Bangalore is caused by private vehicles, especially cars. And we feel that the only solution to reducing such congestion and air pollution…

Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) and Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara (BBPV) have initiated a public campaign - #BusBhagyaBeku - seeking ‘Half the Fares and Double the Fleet’. CfB and BBPV met with various organisations and conducted commuter surveys at garment factories on Mysore Road and at Shivaji Nagar, Jayanagar TTMCs and at Majestic to understand their concerns and to seek their support for #BusBhagyaBeku. CfB and BBPV, call upon all citizens of Bengaluru to take a bus to Shantinagar TTMC on Saturday 4th March at 11AM (incidentally, the monthly Bus Day) in an expression of support for public transport and ‘#BusBhagyaBeku’ to…

Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) members Prakash Belawadi, Naresh Narasimhan, Srinivas Alavilli, Tara Krishnaswamy, Priya Chetty Rajagopal, Deepti Sudhindra along with Leo Saldanha (ESG) addressed the media on recent developments with respect to the steel flyover and master plan for Bengaluru. They put on record the following: 1. We are appalled by the recent statements by Hon'ble Minister K J George that 'people who own private jets oppose the steel flyover'. The statement reflects disdain for the concern of citizens who love Bengaluru, more than 2.5 lakhs of whom have emphatically rejected the steel flyover plan - via the human chain…

Citizens for Bengaluru, the collective that led the #SteelFlyoverBeda requests all Bengalureans to join the rail yatra from Cantonment to Whitefield on Saturday at 9AM to create awareness about local trains and demand Government to prioritise the suburban rail system that has been pending for decades. Prakash Belawadi, member of CfB said: "Bengaluru is over-polluted and unless we act now we will lose our city. Traffic is our biggest concern and mass public transport has to be the top priority and not flyovers. We request the presence of all city legislators, MLAs, MPs, Corporators to join us in the rail…

On 26th May 2016, I made an appeal outlining a 3-point program for this monsoon "Let us send some rain water to our lakes" by clearing the storm water drains that carry precious rain water. "Great idea!" but.."easier said than done", "clearing drains is not as simple as spot fixing"  Those were some of the reactions. It made me even more determined to try harder, to get things started, to understand practical difficulties better. I'm a software engineer by profession and learned over the years that without a working prototype no one will give you a chance for your great…

Stormwater drain completely covered by leaves and mud. Pic: Srinivas Alavilli “A city will not die so long as its citizens do not give up.” – Ashwin Mahesh, Urban expert I am sure none of us wants to give up on namma Bengaluru. We love it. We are immensely proud of our beautiful city – resident’s pride and neighbors’ envy for all the global brand recognition!  More than a crore of us call it home. It was once called ‘pensioners paradise’ but today it is the paradise for the best and brightest to pursue innovation. We are not about to give…

The Supreme Court recently barred criminals from contesting elections, and also ruled that convicted MLAs and MPs would lose their seats. Our politicians immediately tried to overturn this through an Ordinance, approved by the entire cabinet. The other parties, which are supposed to provide opposition to such dubious steps, also kept quiet because such moves benefit them too. But there is no doubt that this retrograde step will infinitely harm democracy in India.  Speaking to the media at Bangalore Press Club, JD(U) State President M P Nadagouda said:  “On September 14 we held a conference on Electoral Reforms. After the…

The stage is set.December 2009: A 100 people ask to Empower Lokayukta and remove Section 19 of Prevention of Corruption Act.March 2010: Bangalore records <40% voting in the BBMP elections. None of the citizen candidates win.December 2010: 900 people join the Corruption Saaku! rally on UN Anti Corruption Day. Saaku! was the top trending topic on Twitter.Jan 2011: 300 people gather on MG Road in a nation wide protest seeking People's Lokpal, later rechristened Jan LokpalApril 2011: India Against Corruption's first fast at Freedom Park. There were more police than people. On day 2, there were only 7 people on…

For people like me who have made Bangalore their own ooru in the recent past, it is fascinating to discover that there were once more than 300 lakes that were engineered to connect with each other and serve as water sources for this beautiful city that stands at elevation of 2953 feet. Bangalore Lakes meeting: A glorious past and a promising future-Dr Ravi Ralph CEO, Lake Development Authority (LDA)-Mr Brijesh Kumar Chief Conservator of Forests, BBMP-Dr Ashwin Mahesh, One Bengaluru, Loksatta; Urban Expert-Shri N.S. Mukunda Citizen Action Forum; Abhyudaya-Success stories and lessons learned - group discussion-Sharing best practices10AM to 1PM,…