City: Bengaluru

The Real Estate Research Initiative of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB-RERI), with support from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), has launched a web-based portal - www.rajakaluve.org to enable Bangaloreans to know if their property is situated on a storm water drain or ‘raja kaluve’. Inaugurating the portal for public use, BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad, said: “This portal enables people ease of access to find details about storm water drains in one place.” Citizens need to have the survey number, village, hobli and taluk as per the schedule in the registration document to be able to use this portal.…

Asha conducts tailoring classes for women in Prakash Nagar in Srirampura to teach the basics of tailoring and also advanced classes in tailoring. Listen to her speak on how to get started with tailoring and be self reliant, there is always a demand for good tailors! In her words “People will come to your house to get their clothes stitched, if you are good at it”. Her underlining philosophy is that we should not waste our time by doing nothing, the least that we can do, is use our time to be useful to others, conducting these classes brings her…

Bellandur is one of the largest wards in Bengaluru. Of late, it has been in news for inefficient garbage collection and burning of garbage in public places. A few months ago, a new garbage contract was awarded to Bellandur. The residents allege that the new system is unscientific and designed to fail. The monthly waste management expenditure for Bellandur ward till August 2016 was Rs 35 lakh. A new contract was awarded in September 2016 and the contract amount was revised to Rs 45 lakh per month. But the difference was not just in cost calculation. The entire system of…

Kaveri (name changed), hails from a remote village in Raichur district. It has been two years since she shifted to Bengaluru and started working in a construction site. Her employer would pay her Rs 6,000 a month in two instalments. The money she earned added up to the family income and was used mostly to look after her three girl children, whom she sees as a ray of hope. She admitted all her girls to a private school back home with an intention to provide them good education. But last two months have been considerably tough for Kaveri. She has…

At a workshop on gender justice in collaboration with Rutgers University-New Jersey, Visthar and Action Aid. Senior Programme Officer Nandhini from Action Aid recounts such cases and explains why gender equality is basic human issue. Kalyani's (name changed) is one such case, from a upper middle class family with degree in Engineering, she got married and moved to Bangalore. Within a month, her husband asked her to quit her job, not talk to her parents, did not allow her to dress the way she wanted. He took away the sim card of her mobile phone and soon this became regular…

The fully functional water treatment system. Pic: Akshatha M Arjun Ravi Kumar, a builder, once visited T-Zed, an apartment-cum-villa community that treats and reuses all its waste water. There he met Srinivasan Sekar, who as part of the Management Committee there, worked on the water system design. He recalls, "Sekhar offered me a glass of tap water saying that it is generated from sewage, initially I was a bit reluctant to drink it but when I did, (I realised) it was as good as any bottled water. " Arjun lives in an apartment that his firm built - Surbacon Maple,…

Dear reader, Wish you a very happy new year from all of us at Citizen Matters - Oorvani Foundation! It was a sad start to the new year, with the reports of molestation in several parts of Bengaluru. What do you think about the debate around molestation incidents? We would like to hear from you! This week’s highlight NICE road land acquisition saga Framers in Gonipura, Thippur and Sigehalli villages grow ragi, maize, dal, peanuts and veggies in their fertile agriculture land. Pic: Akshatha M Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) was supposed to connect two cities seamlessly. NICE Road, the part…

Villagers of Gonipura, Thippur and Sigehalli near Bidadi are largely dependent on farming for their livelihood. Pic: Akshatha M Krishnappa, a small farmer in his late 60s, vividly remembers the day 18 years ago, when he first received a government notice which said his five-acre agricultural land was notified for a road and township project. The notice came as a shocker to him as well as his fellow-villagers in Thippur, a quiet rural suburb near Bidadi located in Bengaluru South taluk. Little did Krishnappa and the villagers know about this mega project that would one day put their lives in…

Oblesh speaks about how the necessity of sanitation created the task of manual scavenging, and how the affluent class used to define a lower caste to undertake this task of manual scavenging. This necessity perpetrated the exploitation of the castes that has spanned generations. And that this is still practiced today, even though the original necessity of sanitation has been mostly been addressed by modern toilets. He says it is important to have proper sanitation infrastructure in place so that the necessity is meet, this task of manual scavenging will no longer be relevant and die away by itself.  

Nearly every citizen of Bangalore has heard of the current state of two of Bangalore’s biggest lakes - the Varthur and Bellandur lakes. The main reasons for the pollution of these lakes are the untreated sewage and industrial effluents that are constantly flowing into the lake.  Map source: All you need to know about Bellandur lake and its problems. Though we all know that these lakes are in bad shape, many of us may not be aware of the extent of  pollution. Check these shocking pictures. VARTHUR LAKE   The froth that we usually see at the top surface of…