City: Bengaluru

The Covid-19 pandemic and various levels of lockdown has affected us in many different ways; from livelihoods, education and mobility, to mental health. Confined physically and mentally for months, there is one common thing that everyone longs for – open spaces that can be freely accessed. On that claustrophobic backdrop, any decision that makes this a reality, was going to be welcome.  So, making Church Street a vehicle-free zone for a certain number of days in a month was a happy development for Bengaluru. The hope is that this weekend experiment will reduce pollution, encourage walking and use electric vehicles. …

HC directs holding BBMP polls without delay The High Court of Karnataka directed the State Election Commission to hold elections to the 198 wards in the BBMP with speed and efficiency. Towards this, the SEC should publish the election programme within a maximum period of six weeks from the date of publication of the final reservation notification, it said. The court directed that the final notification on caste-based reservation for the 198 wards (based on the draft notification issued in September) be published within a month. By this order, the ruling party's amendment to increase the number of wards in…

Bengaluru has seen its share of mobilised violence. Mobilised violence refers to violence perpetrated by a group of people to achieve an identified objective. There are significant socio-political, historic and economic factors that engender mobilised violence, but the inadequacy of the legal system and absence of sensible policing also play a role in preventing it. Existing legal approaches have failed to curb mobilised violence. While some laws aim to address it by imposing restrictions on hate speech and the formation of associations or assemblies, they are often broadly constructed, vague and invariably misused. The discretion conferred by these laws to…

On October 13, Tanishq withdrew an advertisement – featuring a Hindu daughter-in-law and her Muslim mother-in-law – in response to widespread trolling on social media that the company was promoting ‘love jihad’. A couple of months earlier, on August 11, even as the country was emerging from the Covid-19 lockdown, Bengaluru witnessed communal violence.  We are living in a communally charged atmosphere where anything and everything seems to be susceptible to becoming a source of religious polarisation. It is in times like this that initiatives, both at the interpersonal and institutional levels, that encourage tolerance and co-operation between religious communities,…

Cities are often thought of as progressive spaces, antithetical to rigid hierarchical systems like caste. Babasaheb Ambedkar himself believed this to be true and advised Dalits to move to cities to escape casteism. Before him, Jyotirao Phule had echoed the same sentiment. However, studies as well as lived experiences suggest that caste continues to shape urban spaces, albeit often invisibly. The same holds true for Bengaluru, even as it is often thought of as one of India's most progressive cities. How does caste continue to play an often invisible, yet important role in Bengaluru? How does it affect different spheres…

Indira Canteen contractors not paid for seven months Contractors of 198 Indira Canteens, including mobile canteens, find it difficult to operate as the BBMP has not paid their bills for more than seven months. The contractors include Chef Talk Food and Hospitality Services Pvt Ltd, Rewards, and Adamya Chetana. Udaykumar of Rewards used to operate 88 canteens, but is now managing 50, according to the new tenders which came into effect on August 1. The government subsidy (for three meals per day) was earlier Rs 37, but has been reduced to Rs 30.3 (Rs 9.8 for breakfast and Rs 10.25…

As we saw in Part 1 of this series, many apartments in Bengaluru have been rushing to install rooftop solar panels in view of expected policy changes. These systems have helped apartments steeply reduce their monthly power bills for common areas. Here's a guide on how you can get a rooftop solar system installed in your apartment too, based on information from the Bangalore Apartments' Federation (BAF), a collective of nearly 500 apartment associations in the city. Also see: A guide to installing solar power in your home What is a rooftop solar system? In this system, solar panels are…

Vishnu Gattupalli is a happy Management Committee (MC) member of his apartment, Trifecta Starlight, located at Mahadevapura. Their newly commissioned 84 kWp solar power plant helps them save more than 80,000 rupees each month on common area electricity bills. “We are extremely happy to have the rooftop solar power plant that has no direct emissions”, says Vishnu. The committee was inspired by the success stories of solar installations in other apartments. Vishnu who is also Secretary, Whitefield Cluster of Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF), says over 30 apartments in the city have adopted solar rooftop. Rooftop solar systems are now an…

Who governs the lakes of our cities? Or should that question be: who should be governing our lakes? Most of us believe it should be the government. A lot of us assume that places like lakes are, by default, to be  taken care of (preserved, maintained and conserved) by the government. And we are not wrong there. It is the government who does that, by default. But what we often don’t realise is that that reality can be changed, and the community that inhabits the areas around these lakes have a big role to play.  At the same time, a…

Bengaluru was 'cleanest' city post Deepavali Karnataka State Pollution Control Board's Air Quality Index data during this year's Deepavali (November 14 to 16) showed that air pollution levels in Bengaluru were lower by 30.34% when compared with the corresponding days last year. With an AQI between 50 and 70, it had the cleanest air among other cities. The most polluted localities on those days were Chandra Layout, Vijayanagar, Hampinagar and Nayandahalli, with an average AQI of around 90. The least polluted areas were the Kempegowda International Airport, Madiwala, Bellandur, Bommanahalli, Yemlur, Koramangala and HSR Layout. There has been a 20%…