City: Bengaluru

This statement concerns the recent proposal by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to lease its newly constructed super-specialty hospital to Narayana Health for a period of 30 years. The hospital occupies 20,000 sq ft on Broadway Road in Shivajinagar. The Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties sees this proposal as sign of intended theft against the people of this city with a view to deny them a very basic human right, the right to healthcare. This plan goes against the public interest of ensuring that every resident in this city has access to healthcare, and is another example of private companies…

Who we are: We are a group of four engineering students from the University of Washington working in collaboration with a local environmental NGO. For the past two months, we have been learning about Bengaluru’s relationship with its water resources. Our team has taken a particular interest in the city’s groundwater supply. We are reaching out to engaged citizens to gather feedback on our project. Background and problem Groundwater monitoring is essential in understanding the availability of underground aquifers. In the city of Bengaluru, only around half of the city serviced by Cauvery water through BWSSB’s distributed system while the…

In response to the statement issued by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board refuting the findings of the air-quality monitoring work released by Co Media Lab and Climate Trends, the organisations have in turn issued a clarification that the exercise was done to measure peak hour pollution levels in the city for a select amount of time on select routes in the morning as well as in the evening. The objective of the study was to measure and bring to fore the personalised exposure levels one is being subjected to while traveling on busy roads for a few hours every…

Proposed amendment to Tree Act cancelled: The proposed amendment to the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act of 1976 has been cancelled, as the state government withdrew the bill last Wednesday. It was a victory for the earnest citizens who had been on a non-stop campaign against the plan. The government had been slammed for proposing a plan that would make it legal for authorities to cut down trees. Hence, on Wednesday, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister TB Jayachandra, clarified to the House that the government was going to take back the proposed amendment. He admitted that the amendment might have…

Growing up in this beautiful city of gardens and lakes, one does wonder what happened to it over the past two decades. Any plans for the city’s future should carve a path of opportunities towards preserving what already works well, adding progressive and sustainable changes and allow the continuum of livability. The past couple of city development plans have been regressive and have lead this city towards a path of decay. This write up is a citizen’s analysis of what is proposed for a neighborhood (Planning District 07) in RMP 2031. Let’s start with some numbers. Land Use Planning District…

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board has issued the following rejoinder on 22nd February to the press release by Climate Trends, on the air quality data monitoring exercise, published on 19th February. [Update] On 23rd February, the team behind the study, Climate Trends and Co Media Lab issued an addendum to clarify the points made in KSPCB's statement below.  On 21st February 2018, Co- Media Lab and Climate Trends have released the report on air quality of Bengaluru City, where it is reported that there are huge gaps in the KSPCB data on the smaller particulate matter ( PM 2.5).…

Even as the gentle city of soft, light breezes, namma Bengaluru, is getting gritty with particulate matter, there seems to be a disconnect between the citizen and the data. What exactly is blowing around? Is it possible to sense and detect the quality of air? How does Bangalore rate in the Air Quality Index (AQI)? Not too good. It has been found that the biggest air pollutant in the city is particulate matter (PM), specifically PM10 and PM2.5. These are tiny, irritant suspensions in the air that tend to enter and cause respiratory and even cardiovascular diseases. In 2015, Greenpeace…

Bengaluru Political Action Committee (B.PAC) submitted strong objections to BESCOM’s proposal for increase of electricity tariff by 0.85 Pa for FY-19 based on extensive data analysis. Submissions were made during Public Hearing held at Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) office. Revathy Ashok, Managing Trustee, B.PAC and T.V. Mohandas Pai, Vice President, B.PAC made the submissions before the commission on February 19, during the public hearing conducted by KERC. Highlights of B.PAC’s submissions: Distribution Loss: KERC has approved distribution loss of 12.75% for FY 18 (up to Nov 2017). BESCOM distribution loss is presented at 11.86%. Further analysis of data of…

Bengaluru's air quality crisis, unlike that in the cities of the north, is a silent one; most online ambient stations which provide information to the public paint a fairly clean picture of the city’s air, though most of its citizens feel otherwise. In an effort to understand the palpable pollution levels in the air we breathe, in comparison to the ambient data being generated by the KSPCB, Co Media Lab and Climate Trends carried out a 7-day air quality monitoring exercise with the help of a low-cost monitor used to measure personalised exposure levels. The activity was spread over a…

On Saturday, February 18th, Prof. Rajeev Gowda, Member of Parliament, spoke on ‘The Regulation of Risk’ at the Beyond Carlton Annual Memorial Lecture. The Carlton Towers Fire on February 23 2010 claimed nine lives and injured over 60 people. Family members of those affected by this accident got together to form Beyond Carlton which focuses on advocacy, accountability and creating awareness about the hazards of fire accidents in India. For the past few years, Beyond Carlton has been conducting an annual Memorial Lecture in February. Speakers in the past have included the likes of Swati Ramanathan, Co-founder Janaagraha;  R.A.Venkitachalam, Managing…