City: Bengaluru

Like every year, Lalbagh is hosting flower show this year as well. The theme is Mahatma Gandhi's 150th Birth Anniversary. Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd has introduced return journey paper tickets for a flat price of Rs 30. One can travel from Lalbagh Metro station to any other stations at this fare, between 10 am to 8 pm, on January 25th, 26th and 27th. The tickets will be available at all metro stations between 8 am to 6 pm. The press note from BMRCL explains it: Like every year, our reader Srinivasan Subramaniam has shared the photos from the flower…

Bengalureans will get a chance to showcase their love for the city this Valentines Day. The Bengaluru Civic Fest organised by IChangeMyCity (an initiative of Janaagraha) along with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will be held on the 14th of February at Freedom Park from 10 am to 8 pm. The festival will be a platform where various civil society organisations and groups discuss their work, government agencies communicate their work with citizens and school children will discuss their participation with local governments. The festival will see the presence of BBMP mayor and Corporators. Sapna Kareem, coordinator, Civic Participation, Janaagraha,…

This article is part of a special series: Air Quality in our Cities Bengaluru has thousands of two-stroke auto rickshaws, which have proved to be a bane in the scheme of things where shift to eco-friendly vehicles needs to happen quickly to counter the air pollution crisis the city is facing. And this is taking time, as the government's plans seem to be ineffective. In November 2018, Radio Active 90.4 MHz CR a community radio station did a study of government's plan to phase out 2-stroke autos and move to 4-stroke autos. They held a focus group discussion with auto drivers…

The third part of this series on Steel flyover took us to the office of Naresh Narasimhan who was one of the principal architects of the Steel Flyover Beda movement which saw people from the city form a human chain from Chalukya Circle to Mehkri Circle on October 16 in 2016. A noted architect from the city, Narasimhan was quick to point out to me as we set up the camera: “I am not against flyovers, but against long ones which exceed a kilometre.” As the camera rolled, he got down to the nuts and bolts of this argument. “We…

Our first conversation with Vijayan Menon from Citizen Action Forum about the proposed steel flyover had raised a very valid point about the context of the project. Why was it only about getting to the airport? What about the people who live in the vicinity of the major choke points - Hebbal, Mekhri Circle etc? What did they want? So we sat down with the President of Hebbal Sarovar Layout Resident Welfare Association, Vijay Kumar Saya to find out about the local sentiment. A resident of North Bengaluru, the elderly man has lived and worked in the area for the…

Bangalore International Centre in collaboration with Citizen Matters and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, had organised 'Right to breathe- Fixing Bengaluru’s Air', a discussion under Bengaluru Solution Series, on January 11th. This was the second installment of the Bengaluru Solution Series. The panel for the discussion comprised of Randeep D, Indian Administrative Officer and Special Commissioner - Solid Waste Management, BBMP, Anjali Saini, a member of Whitefield Rising, Pawan Mulukutla, Bosch India and Shashank Atreya, a Research Fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. The panel was moderated by Meera K, Founder, Citizen Matters. The quality of Bengaluru’s air is…

'NGT buffer zone will raze 95% of the city' National Green Tribunal's order of adherence to buffer zones for lakes and drains will see 95% of Bengaluru razed, as most buildings are in the vicinity of lakes and tertiary drains, said Uday Holla, Advocate General of Karnataka, in a written submission at the Supreme Court last week. Earlier the Supreme Court had also expressed reservations on the rights of the National Green Tribunal, a statutory body, to change the 30-metre buffer zone around lakes in Bengaluru to 75 metres. Citizen Matters had earlier written about the problem in detail. Source:…

In an attempt to get opinion from Bengaluru bus commuters regarding the State Government’s proposal to hike BMTC bus fares, several concerned individuals and groups held a ‘Post Card Campaign’ at the Shivajinagar Bus Stand, in Bengaluru recently. Addressing the Chief Minister of Karnataka, H. D. Kumaraswamy, the groups spoke up against the disparity in transport planning in Bengaluru city. The groups sought support from commuters by signing on post cards that said, “I heard the government is planning to build Elevated Corridors while spending Rs. 33,000 crores. But, BMTC said they are raising fares since government is not supporting…

In 2016, the Government of Karnataka cancelled the proposed Steel Flyover starting from Basaveshwara Circle to Hebbal. The project was touted as a measure to ease traffic to the International Airport. However following citizen protests and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, the government shelved those plans. Come 2019, the Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, G Parameshwara reopened the debate, when he said the government was reconsidering the project. The steel flyover project brought forward the citizen activism in the city which many credit for the scrapping of the project by the government. While a large part of the public…

In the above photo are some of a motley group of citizens who are funding the construction of a Ganga style stone mantapa to house the recently discovered 750CE Kittayya-Hebbal inscription stone! This could well be the first time ever in the world a group of ordinary citizens are coming together to help conserve and celebrate a city's written heritage in this manner. In the photo they are seen holding accurate 1/8 scale brass mementos of the incredible Kittayya-Hebbal inscription. These same mementos are now proudly displayed in showcases in their homes and offices – a first again in that…