Bengaluru this week
January 14th 2016
CITIZEN MATTERS
Everybody knows Bengaluru roads are unsafe. In all likelihood, you or someone you know personally has had an accident – whether inside a vehicle, or more commonly as a pedestrian. While roads of bad quality and unscientific traffic design are one reason, how do we minimise the risk? The government says: wear helmets. So we wrote up an FAQ on that! In parallel, there are a bunch of things the state needs to do. This and more in this edition. Attn Oorvani Foundation Donors: This week’s highlight: BBMP’s newly opened animal crematorium What do you do when your pet or the stray animal you were caring for passes away? Do you wait for BBMP to come and lift the carcass? Or do you look for a space where you can give the animal a decent burial? Here are your options: Where to bury/cremate pets in Bengaluru. On the road In 2015, Bengaluru witnessed 4,828 accidents that claimed the lives of 714 people. Shouldn’t we be looking to make the roads safer, to reduce the incidence of such accidents? Read: 10 things that can declutter the roads and make them safer. Starting January 12th, wearing a helmet is compulsory for both parties on a two-wheeler. The rider will be held responsible if the pillion rider fails to wear the helmet. Read: Don’t forget the helmet! Living in Bengaluru What are the key lessons from 2015 the government could learn? What are the challenges Bengaluru poses to the government? What needs to be improved? Nidhi Gupta and Varun Santhosh from The Takshashila Institution share their thoughts. Read: It’s the governance, stupid! How clean do you think Bengaluru is? Would you like to rate the city in terms of its hygiene and sanitation? Participate in the Swachh Bharat survey before January 15th to have your say. In the ‘hood In what is probably a first for the Whitefield area, two wards, Kadugodi and Varthur, appointed their ward committees on the first Sunday of the new year. Read: So, is local self-governance here now? GAIL has dug the roads in HSR layout in Bengaluru to lay pipelines. But the repair work is taking time. Ultimately, citizens are paying for the mess. Read: HSR sector 7: caught between GAIL and BBMP. If you live in HSR layout and suffer from the dug roads, you can:
While citizens must complain about inefficiencies, they should also highlight the good work being done by local administration. Sapna Prabhu tracks the progress of work on the Hulimavu-Begur road. Read: Akshayanagar Layout road get a facelift. What can one do when the authorities turn a deaf ear to the issues in your area? Here’s how residents of BDA 6th stage near Kanakpura road got them to pay attention. Read: Protesting against BDA inaction. Living by the lake Many lakes in the city have been irreparably converted to public places. Images from a study on floods in Bengaluru show how visible the difference is. Read: Bengaluru lost its water bodies, and here’s what is remaining. On January 9th, the 2 km walking track around Kaikondrahalli lake was abuzz with activity. The recently concluded Kere Habba at the lake premises is a testimony to how much the community cares about the lake. In pictures: Kere Habba at Kaikondrahalli lake. Imagine leaving an area, only to come back after many years to find it so much more beautiful than you left it! That’s the case of Munnekolala lake. Read: Something to cheer about. Charity begins at home and no better examples than these children who live around Puttenahalli lake. Read: Heartwarming gestures by our children. The lives of others Thejaswi Udupa is back with a new post on Oorjana, featuring stories of people-neither friends nor strangers-one runs into in Bengaluru. This one is a tale garnered from an Uber ride… Read: The Uber driver. Food for thought Ashwin Mahesh says good governance means increasing the number of problem-solving people, and being accountable in policy and implementation. Read: Finding loopholes to escape the legal net… Culturati Whether out-of-towners should learn Kannada has been a long-standing bone of contention in Bengaluru. Here is a man who is teaching Whitefielders how to speak Kannada. Read: How a cartoonist is teaching Kannada on Facebook. When three women – a flautist, a violinist and a vainika – got together to give a Carnatic concert a few years ago it was the beginning of a new journey. Chitra Srikrishna interviews the musical trio: Unique venu-violin-veena team. While competitions between performers can raise the bar in terms of the quality of music, if the rivalry continues off stage, it can easily get blown out of proportion. Read: Musical competitions – Boon or Bane? The 8th Bengaluru International Film Festival is set to begin on January 28th, and will showcase around 170 films in 18 different languages, including the critically-acclaimed Kannada films Rangi Tharanga and Nanu Avanalla Avalu. Read: A filmy treat for movie buffs. The wonders of nature There are some organisms that thrive in the moist, humid environment that the monsoons bring. And though they have a short life, they are beautiful and intriguing, when they appear. Read: Nature’s umbrellas. The week that was
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