City: Bengaluru

Ever since BBMP publicised its proposal for ward delimitation in June, citizens and experts have raised many concerns. Now, the Whitefield Rising Trust has filed a formal objection with the state's Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar, against the "unscientific" proposal. The Trust's letter, submitted on Tuesday, is also marked to Additional Chief Secretary of the Urban Development Department E V Ramana Reddy, and to BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar. BBMP's delimitation exercise will restructure ward boundaries so that Bengaluru's population is distributed equally across wards, at 42,645 per ward. This population data is based on the 2011 Census.…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVDpWOLhZzs

Residents and citizen groups of Mahadevapura assembly constituency will stage a protest on Friday 9.30 am, at the Marathahalli Bridge bus stop. The #MahdevapuraDemands protest is called against elected representatives of the constituency for failing to deliver on the promises they had made on restoring civic amenities and making the area liveable. Resignation of elected representatives is one of the main demands of the protestors. The representatives here are Mahadevapura MLA Aravind Limbavali, Bengaluru Central MP P C Mohan, BBMP corporators A C Hari Prasad (Hoodi), B N Nithish Purushotham (Garudachar Palya), S Muniswamy (Kadugodi), S Uday Kumar (Hagadur), Shwetha…

Last month, BBMP started deploying SWM (Solid Waste Management) Marshals to check littering, garbage dumping etc and penalise offenders under the new SWM Bye-laws. The Marshals booked 1129 cases in September, issuing steep penalties under the new bye-laws. This, along with 774 cases booked for the plastic ban, earned BBMP over Rs 14 lakh in fines that month. Now, BBMP is planning to provide handheld devices to the Marshals, to enable them to issue digitally-printed challans to offenders on the spot. Speaking to Citizen Matters, D Randeep, Special Commissioner (SWM) at BBMP, said that predefined fines for each offence would be…

You’ve probably heard about BMTC’s 'bus priority lane' pilot project in ORR (Outer Ring Road) by now. Officials are working full-time to set up infrastructure for the project, and are conducting test runs. Speaking to Citizen Matters, KR Puram Traffic Police Inspector Lokesha says they have been asked to deploy police personnel to ensure only buses ply in the priority lanes. "BMTC will gives us details after the pilot runs are completed. We will then deploy personnel depending on the number and frequency of buses," he says. Here are some quick details about this pilot : Starting November 1st, the…

Heavy rains breach lake, flood homes in north Bengaluru Heavy rains breached the corner bund of Doddabidarakallu lake, leading to overflow and inundation of about 500 houses, early on Thursday morning. Residents of Bhavani Nagar, Annapurneshwari Layout, Anandappa Layout and Muneshwara Layout were horrified as water levels rose up to almost six feet. Power cuts worsened the situation, leaving residents groping in the dark for their belongings. The lake bund was breached at about 2 am, as it received a huge volume of water from a stormwater drain (SWD) upstream. Police came to the spot at about 3 am with…

The city administration recently resolved to implement bus lanes on the 12 high-density corridors identified by the government in 2016. This brings in some pertinent observations by citizens at large, who are very excited about the project but are also concerned if it would be effective on ground. What is proposed is not Bus Rapid Transit which is a system with its own dedicated tracks, a separate rolling stock of buses, and separate bus stations (if the ticketing systems are different). The 12 high-density corridors are proposed to have bus priority lanes which use the existing road infrastructure and the…

In July, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) formally acknowledged that ‘foldable bicycles’ were welcome in the Metro. But its blanket rule on baggage fees has dampened the spirits of commuters who use cycles for last-mile connectivity. The baggage rule implies that a commuter would have to pay Rs 30 every time he boards the Metro with his cycle. This fee may even be higher that the commuter's own ticket cost. Despite BMRCL's avowed support for cycling, it's unwilling to exempt cycles from baggage fee. Rs 30 for excess baggage Since the Metro started operating in 2011, BMRCL had introduced…

With all the buzz around sustainability, climate change and plastic pollution, it is good to see businesses around the world including PepsiCo and Nestle starting to talk about eco-friendly choices. Everyday, news reports highlight the innovative strategies of businesses to combat plastic pollution. For decades, we have been polluting our environment with plastic disposables, obsessed with the use-and-throw culture. Now we read about many inventions to replace plastic disposables with other types of disposables that are environment-friendly, labelled as pro-earth, biodegradable, compostable, food-grade etc. But are we going in the right direction by replacing one kind of disposable with another…

Govt considers zonal committees in B'luru State government is considering promoting zonal meetings at BBMP, to further decentralise the powers of BBMP Commissioner. The zonal committee will involve special commissioners, engineer-in-chief, ward officials, officials from all civic agencies, MLAs, nominated representatives from citizen groups, and ward committee members of the respective zones. As per a draft brought out by the government, the committee should clear proposals and works in the zone, before these are sent to the BBMP Council for approval. The draft also recommends including the committees in finalising the zonal budget for 2020. As per a recent government…