City: Bengaluru

If you are considering buying a home or a flat, always check that the land it is standing on has been classified as 'for residential use'. This simple check can save a lot of hassle later. Pic: Rameshng/Wikimedia Commons Reviewed by Prabhakar Shetty, practising advocate at the Karnataka High Court Buying property in Bengaluru can be confusing and risky - there are multiple authorities for land use approvals, obscure rules, and the finer details are often missed out. In this article, we explain what buyers and investors should know about different land types and the authorities regulating each. Following are…

In 2008, Nandini N, professor at the Department of Environmental Science at Bangalore University, started documenting Bengaluru’s biodiversity for its first People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR). She was a member of BBMP’s Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC), which is mandated to prepare a PBR under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. Professor Nandini inaugurated the exercise at JP Park in Mathikere where, she remembered, “very few Matti trees were surviving”. For the next two years, Professor Nandini, then the Director for Student Welfare at Bangalore University, involved approximately 20 colleges across the city to collate information on biodiversity. They first divided the city…

In the past few weeks, many Bengalureans protested the reopening of Cubbon Park to vehicles, saying this lung space needs to be protected. The 300-acre park had been closed for about five months since the imposition of COVID lockdown. The protesters pointed to examples like Central Park in New York, where city authorities have completely banned motorised traffic. Despite protests, the State Horticulture Department allowed the park to be opened to vehicles last week based on a request from the Bengaluru Traffic Police. On the morning of 24 August, some 25 citizens from the #ConcernCollective gathered at Cubbon Park, demanding…

BBMP Council's term ends, administrator appointed On Thursday, state government appointed IAS officer Gaurav Gupta as the administrator of BBMP, since the five-year term of the BBMP Council ended. Gaurav Gupta is the Principal Secretary of Commerce and Industries Department, and has taken additional charge as BBMP administrator. He will take decisions related to the city until the new Council is formed. Former corporators alleged that the administrator's appointment was a clear sign that the government wanted to avoid the election, and that it's a violation of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act. State government had cited the pandemic as well…

Five months after Metro services were stopped, the BMRCL (Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd) resumed services this Monday, September 7. Metro has undergone many administrative and operational changes on account of COVID-19, but are these enough? What are the learnings from other cities across the globe? Several cities like New York, London and Hong Kong have been successfully operating their mass transit services, with a slew of safety and hygiene measures to curb COVID transmission. New York and London saw passenger numbers in subways plummet when COVID cases rocketed there in April-May. Though cases are still reported from these cities,…

BBMP is not equipped to handle the problems within its limited area of 712 sq km, let alone those in the larger Bengaluru Metropolitan Region. Pic: BBMP Part 1 of this series explored why the recently-introduced BBMP Bill is problematic. In this part, the author proposes an alternative governance structure for the city. The recently-introduced BBMP Bill proposes splitting the 198 wards in Bengaluru to 225, but not bringing about major changes in the functioning of the bankrupt, dysfunctional BBMP. Besides, given the entire Bengaluru Metropolitan Region (BMR) of 8,005 sq km is urbanising rapidly, the governance of Bengaluru needs to…

It is said that doing the same experiment again and again under the same conditions and expecting a different result each time is schizophrenic. Bringing another legislation, the BBMP Bill, to improve the same dysfunctional BBMP is such an example. Over the past week, the Joint Legislative Committee (JLC) appointed by the state government has been deliberating on the BBMP Bill, a separate Bill for the administration of Bengaluru. This Bill is to replace the KMC (Karnataka Municipal Corporations) Act which is currently the basis for the administration of Bengaluru (and other municipalities in the state). BBMP Bill proposes increasing…

Namma Metro has prepared an exhaustive list of dos and don'ts for passenger safety since services resumed Monday. But it has no standard procedure or frequency for cleaning and sanitising its coaches. Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd authorities said that their housekeeping staff have been trained to sanitise coaches at regular intervals from the starting point to the termination point of a trip. But they did not specify the frequency with which the cleaning procedures would be carried out. One official said that the frequency would depend on the availability of staff. The corporation said it was employing their own…

COVID-19 is far more than a health crisis; it has affected our economy and livelihoods, and has challenged our society overall. We have been applauding those in the healthcare sector, but few think of workers who’ve been risking their lives to maintain sanitation at the frontlines -- cleaning our streets, ensuring that we don’t catch the virus -- all with sub-optimal working conditions and lack of health cover.  To address this issue, Antar, a group of college students from Bengaluru and other cities, came together to provide ration and relief kits to pourakarmikas and their families. We have covered over…

Rules for travel in Namma Metro As Namma Metro services are set to resume on September 7, the BMRCL (Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd) has drawn up an SoP (Standard Operating Procedure) for using the services. The number of commuters in each train is limited to 400. Not more than 50 passengers will be allowed to enter stations, except in terminals and interchange stations. Masks are mandatory. Passengers have been advised to use alternate steps on escalators. Only four to six passengers will be allowed to use lifts and they have to stand on foot-mark stickers. There will be yellow…