City: Bengaluru

Mittiganahalli landfill to be delayed The Urban Development Department (UDD) turned down a bidder chosen by the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) for setting up a scientific landfill at Mittiganahalli near Hennur, and asked BBMP to initiate a fresh tender process. BBMP had hoped to dump waste in the Mittiganahalli landfill since the landfills at Bagalur and Bellahalli quarries had already been overflowing. But UDD rejected the bidder on grounds that he was not technically qualified, having had prior experience only as a sub-contractor and not as primary contractor. Garbage management in the city is likely to be hit since…

Last month, the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) released a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for Bengaluru. You have till January 5th to send in your suggestions and objections to the plan. Set in three phases, CMP is expected to be implemented between 2020 and 2035. What are the key suggestions and projects in the CMP? It's heartening that pedestrian infrastructure - which had been ignored in previous mobility plans - makes an appearance in this one. But what's most striking is that the elevated corridor project, which the government had shelved after major citizen protests, makes a sudden comeback…

Jayanagar was founded in 1948 as a suburb of Bengaluru, and planned by the city’s pre-eminent administrator N Lakshman Rau and his team. Today it is spread across 3 kms east to west, and about 5 kms north to south. Jayanagar is now a vast area of residential, commercial and educational activity that hums with life by day and night. With parks and avenues lined with native as well as exotic tree species, Jayanagar cannot be compared to any other suburb in our country. And residents here rightly take pride in this legacy. So which are the trees along Jayanagar's streets,…

Everyone in Bengaluru would have seen and been disgusted by mounds of garbage on the roads. Everyone heaves a sigh of relief when the BBMP carts off waste upon receiving complaints from frustrated residents. But where does the garbage go? Government has come up with a quick fix solution for Bengaluru's garbage woes - five Waste to Energy (WtE) plants with a combined capacity to manage 2100 tonnes of waste per day. Many people may think - wow, Waste to Energy! That’s a brilliant concept! Solves two crises in one go! Absolutely wrong. Here are five reasons why: WtE plants…

Indian Constitution guarantees the right to free movement to all citizens. But in Bengaluru, pedestrians are an endangered lot. Of the top eight metros in India, Bengaluru has the third highest number of pedestrian fatalities. This is not surprising given that about 60 percent of our mobility budget focuses on road construction and expansion. In the absence of safe footpaths, zebra crossings, and accessible skywalks, pedestrians are prone to jaywalking, putting themselves as well as motorists in danger. If policy makers continue to invest in infrastructure for motorised transport as opposed to that for walking and other non-motorised transport, we…

3,559 trees may be felled for roads, Metro To enable five civil projects, 3,559 trees in the city are slated to be felled. More than 90 percent of the trees would be felled for road construction or widening in south Bengaluru. On Friday, an expert committee formed by the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) started examining the tree-felling proposals submitted by three government agencies. This committee had been formed based on a High Court order. The proposals include cutting down 1,822 trees for road works between NICE Road and Magadi Road for a larger two-lane project by Karnataka State Highways…

Translated by Omshivaprakash H L and Mukund Gowda ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತಾರು ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ, 1993 ರ ಜೂನ್ 1 ರಂದು ನಗರ ಆಡಳಿತದಲ್ಲಿ “ಜನರಿಗೆ ಅಧಿಕಾರ” ನೀಡಲು 74 ನೇ ಸಾಂವಿಧಾನಿಕ ತಿದ್ದುಪಡಿ ಅಥವಾ ನಾಗರಪಾಲಿಕಾ ಕಾಯ್ದೆಯನ್ನು ಜಾರಿಗೆ ತರಲಾಯಿತು. 74 ನೇ ಸಿಎ ಅಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ, ವಿಕೇಂದ್ರೀಕರಣಕ್ಕೆ ಮಹತ್ವ ನೀಡಿ, ನಾಗರಿಕರ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹೊಣೆಗಾರಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ಹೆಚ್ಚಸಲು  ಮೂರು ಲಕ್ಷಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಜನಸಂಖ್ಯೆ ಹೊಂದಿರುವ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಪುರಸಭೆ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಾರ್ಡ್ ಸಮಿತಿಗಳನ್ನು ರಚಿಸಬೇಕಾಗಿತ್ತು. ವಾರ್ಡ್ ಸಮಿತಿಯ ಸದಸ್ಯರು ವಾರ್ಡ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ ಕೈಗೊಂಡ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನು ವಿಶ್ಲೇಷಿಸುವುದು, ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿ ಯೋಜನೆಯನ್ನು ರಚಿಸುವುದು, ವಿವಿಧ ಕಾಮಗಾರಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಬಜೆಟ್ ಹಂಚಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಧರಿಸುವುದು ಇತ್ಯಾದಿಗಳನ್ನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕಾಗಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ಆದರೆ ಅನೇಕ ವಾರ್ಡ್‌ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ, ಸಭೆಗಳು ಅನಿರ್ಧಿಷ್ಟವಾಗಿದೆ, ‍ಸಮಿತಿಯ ಸದಸ್ಯರಿಗೆ ಮಾತಿಗೆ ಯಾವುದೇ ಅವಕಾಶ‌ ನೀಡದೇ, ಕೌನ್ಸಿಲರ್‌ಗಳು ಏಕಪಕ್ಷೀಯ ನಿರ್ಧಾರಗಳನ್ನು  ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಇನ್ನು ಹಲವು ವಾರ್ಡ್‌ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ, ಸಭೆಗಳು ಕೇವಲ ಕುಂದುಕೊರತೆ ಹೇಳಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ವೇದಿಕೆಗಳಾಗಿ ಮಾರ್ಪಟ್ಟಿವೆ.‌ ಅದಾಗ್ಯೂ  ಈ ಕುಂದುಕೊರತೆಗಳನ್ನು ನೋಂದಾಯಿಸುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ಅಥವಾ ಪರಿಹರಿಸಲಾಗಿಲ್ಲ.…

Moin Basha used to grow ragi on a small tract of land he owned in Mugabala village in the outskirts of Bengaluru. When water scarcity and mounting debt from failed borewells forced him to abandon his primary livelihood, he looked to the city for an alternate livelihood. Now he is a technician with an electronics service centre in north Bengaluru but continues to live in Mugabala, thanks to the improved road connectivity between Bengaluru and Mugabala, which is located close to NH 75 that passes through Bengaluru. Road infrastructure projects like these are enabling an important transition in and around…

To say that the year 2019 belonged to the young people of the world would be understating it. Their voices were powerful and arresting with one clear message - “fall in line or fall by the wayside”. Climate change was one of the issues the youth engaged with, globally. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist whom Time magazine recently named as its youngest-ever 'Person of the Year', had called for a worldwide protest in September. Thousands of youngsters responded to her call and flooded the streets across cities. An offshoot of that movement was Fridays For Future (FFF), a group…

On 14th December, thousands thronged the Town Hall in Bengaluru in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The organisers printed the Indian Constitution’s Preamble on a banner that dangled off the neoclassical building as protestors kept gathering. But after speeches by prominents like Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Gowda and author and historian Ramchandra Guha, the protestors appeared to be clearly divided. On one side were those from Assam sloganeering, “Bangladeshis go back”, while on the other were Muslims chanting around Azaadi (freedom). At one point an Assamese protestor looked at his friend and asked, “Inko kis baat ki azaadi…