City: Bengaluru

This Saturday, representatives of over 50 large apartments in Bellandur ward of Mahadevpura constituency met their MLA Aravind Limbavali, demanding a solution to their water woes. Majority of these apartments, located within the 110 villages that became part of BBMP a decade ago, have no BWSSB connections yet. The few who do have BWSSB connections, mostly on the Outer Ring Road side, get erratic supply. Their borewells have dried up, and they are paying cutthroat amounts to private tankers to fulfil their minimum water requirements. Even then, they don’t have enough water. BBMP asked to supply water, reign in private…

City up in Swachh Survekshan, Smart City rankings Bengaluru was ranked 194 out of 425 cities in Swachh Survekshan 2019, with a score of 2351.81 out of a total of 5000. This was a marginal improvement over the city's ranking of 216 in 2018, and 210 in 2017. BBMP had reclaimed black spots, overhauled transfer stations and organised compost santhes in an effort to improve the city's ranking this year. But factors like the lack of new garbage tenders and of ODF (Open Defecation Free) certification worked against the city. Many citizens had also given negative feedback during the survey,…

Write an Open Letter to your MLA A contest for all citizens of Bengaluru. Write an article on how your MLA performed in the last 5 years. How has he/she delivered / achieved as against what was promised during the 2013 state elections. What do you expect in the next term? What we expect: Your letter should make one think, substantiate them with context and data. Write in a simple and lucid style. Your write-up should be based on an understanding of the role of an MLA and the authority vested in him/her. Do not mix up MLA’s roles with other…

Iblur lake is almost ready! Those of you who travel by the lake may have noticed that the lake bed has been cleaned and levelled, the bund has been built, and bund walls pitched with stone. Water inlets and outlets have been constructed, and the newly built storm water drains along Outer Ring Road will bring rainwater runoff into the lake. Once Hoskote Gravel is laid on the bund, the walking/jogging path would be complete. Joggers and walkers have already started using the lake. Birds also make occasional stopovers. We, local residents who had formed the Iblur Lake Forum, are…

This January, BBMP  floated a new tender to deal with the city's perennial garbage problem. D Randeep, Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management and Health), BBMP, sat down for a chat with 'Citizens Live' to answer niggling doubts about the controversial tender. "The central issue is still segregation. The new policy is that wet and sanitary waste will be picked up by BBMP everyday. Dry waste will be picked up by NGOs, waste collectors," he said. He stressed that it was therefore imperative that we, the general public, segregate our waste. "If you don't, we do have provisions to penalise people;…

A 600-metre stretch of footpath, along the Old Outer Ring Road in Nagarbhavi, has become a nightmare for pedestrians. This stretch starts from the main gate of Dr Ambedkar Institute of Technology (Dr AIT), a leading engineering college, and ends at Kengunte Circle. The Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM), an educational institution under central government's Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is also located along this stretch. This stretch of footpath is perilous for the thousands of students and staff of IIPM and Dr AIT, and the general public, who use it everyday. It is ever-filled with vast volumes of…

BMTC has launched three new bus routes along the IT corridor, to service Sarjapur Road neighbourhoods. In a mini function today, MLA NA Haris, MLC Rizwan Arshad and Bellandur corporator Asha Suresh flagged off the new service. Two of the routes run in a loop to Electronic City - one in clockwise and the other in anti-clockwise direction - covering neighbourhoods like Kasavanahalli, Doddakannalli, Haralur and HSR Layout. The third route runs in a loop to Carmelaram Railway Station, covering Doddakannalli, Kadubisanahalli, Bellandur Gate and Kaikondrahalli. Residents along Sarjapur Road have been demanding BMTC services to these areas. The Kasavanahalli…

Jerome and Applejack, the therapy horses at the Paws and Hooves Project from Wag-ville in Bangalore, enjoy working with special needs individuals. One of Applejack’s favourite students is Anil, a six-year-old child diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. When Anil first came to us about a month ago, he had severe spasticity in his arms and legs – Anil could neither walk nor sit independently. Today, he sits on Applejack with a specially designed saddle that has a seat-belts to enable him to sit upright. The movement on the horse, combined with physiotherapy exercises done while seated on the horse have enabled…

H1N1 cases spurt in February Since January, 603 positive cases of H1N1 have been reported in Karnataka, according to the State Health and Family Welfare Department. Of these, the highest number of cases, 141, were from BBMP limits. Reported cases shot up suddenly in February - cases almost doubled from 49 in the last week of January, to 91 in the first week of February. Overall, 400 people tested positive in the state in February alone, of whom 14 have succumbed to the infection. Bengaluru Urban District Surveillance Officer, T K Sunanda, said at a press conference, that areas such…

"Fire safety plan should be made part of the city plan," emphasised Dr. A Ravindra, former Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka, while delivering the Beyond Carlton Memorial Lecture ' Our cities on Fire'. The lecture which was held on the 23rd of February at the Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services Headquarters, marked nine years since fire broke out at Carlton towers on Old Airport Road, claiming nine lives. The event saw the launch of the Campaign -  Fire Risk Assessments for Apartments. The campaign is a collaboration between Beyond Carlton, Bengaluru Apartments Federation (BAF), Citizen Matters, Jain University and When…