City: Bengaluru

From: Citizens Concerned over the Proposed Steel Flyover An open letter to: The Bengaluru Vision Group Comprising - NR Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Sachin Bansal, Ramesh Ramanathan,Swati Ramanathan, V Ravichandar,Kalpana Kar, Mohandas Pai,Ramakanth, K Jairaj, RK Misra, BS Patil,Siddaiah, andVivek Menon cc: CMoK Siddaramaiah, Chairman; Bengaluru Development Minister KJ George, Co-Chairman; et al Members, The purpose of your group, was, according to an April 28, 2016, order of the Government of Karnataka: "... to improve life of Bengalureans by ushering in reforms in infrastructure and systems, resource mobilization, transparent governance, especially e-governance solutions, and increased participation of citizens, organizations and industry members." (Media reports) As concerned citizens,…

Railway Under-Bridge near Bengaluru's Shivananda Circle is no longer an ugly, stinking, dangerous thoroughfare for pedestrians. It has been transformed in five steps: Step 1 (June 2016): Railways staff + citizen volunteers de-poster, remove garbage and transform 80% of the RUB over three days. The Ugly Indian poster-repellent design was used, with striking bright colours, to brighten up an otherwise dark and dreary under-bridge place. See the album of Spotfix no 1 here: https://www.facebook.com/theugl.yindian/photos/… Step 2 (July 2016): BBMP fixes the footpath and repairs the pathways, including installing lights Step 3 (July 2016): Railways fixes the leaking roof and trims…

I was requested by Irina Ghose and Gopal Swaminathan to conduct a nature/birding walk at Lalbagh for their daughter Divya, who was celebrating her birthday. We gathered most of the group together for a "landmark" shot: And off we went. We started with the commonest of birds, the Blue Rock Pigeon: And the Black Kite (here, a silhouette in the sky): At the lake, we saw a Little Egret and a Purple Heron: A Purple Swamphen: A Common Moorhen: A White-throated Kingfisher looked out over the rose garden. The Spotted Owlets didn't seem too enthused to see me back again…

Have you wondered about the advertisement boards that we see on our roads and medians? Most of the time we curse them silently for spoiling the skyline or worse, blocking our line of vision while crossing the road, and then move on. We assume that some official body gave them an ill-conceived permission. When the number of such boards in Bellandur ward became too much to bear, to the extent that they were causing fatal accidents, we met the Special Commissioner for Property tax and Hoardings - V Rashmi Mahesh on March 27, 2016. And guess what we learnt? Of…

This is surely a map no one wants to see. Nearly 1100 garbage dumps across different wards captured on a map, in the city of Bengaluru, by citizens - a crowdsourced attempt, point to how common and ubiquitous is the problem of garbage in public spaces. Each garbage dump has a story behind it. Some of the photos from the map: What's happening near this lake? Thermocol is a type of waste Bengaluru cannot figure how to dispose. Dumped in a no-man's land, it slowly pollutes the atmosphere and water bodies. A cow feeds on garbage full of paper and…

Saturday dawned for The Girl and promised fun on the run: Interview assistance in Jayanagar for Srinivas Alavilli's pet project, ICDS. Sponge and soak in the water management seminar at Church Street for Meera Kri's pet project, Citizen Matters. Discussion on Mid-day meals in public schools in Kanakapura with Ramamurthy (founder of Sikhshana), his pet project.   Halfway through recording the interview with the ICDS teacher, The Girl realised she needed to record attendance at the bathroom soon. As they finished up, she spied the Anganwadi bathroom outside on the open terrace. A rusty tin door hinged to a suspiciously…

Instance 1: Summer of 2012. T-Zed Homes, a gated community spread over five acres in Whitefield was facing acute water shortage, resulting in water rationing within the complex. With ever-growing water needs, even the water supplied by 10 tankers everyday proved to be insufficient for the residents of this housing complex. In the last four years, however, things have changed dramatically for the residents of T-Zed Homes. The successful implementation of sewage water treatment and rainwater harvesting have helped them reduce the dependency on water tankers. 100% working implementation of the sewage treatment plants in the apartment space has led…

After those three informative quizzes, people are finally acknowledging that I do know a thing or two about pavements. Having proven my interest and understanding of this subject, I thought I should spread this knowledge far and wide. I know most people don’t understand my interest in this insignificant topic, but why must everyone think only about the big, important stuff that gets them attention? I am determined to show that even a humble pavement has a part to play in the whole orchestra, or symphony –  or whatever. You know what I mean. At this point, I have to…

A huge loss in his pressure cooker manufacturing factory and the financial crisis that followed made Ajay a migrant, or footloose informal worker. Eight years ago, he moved from Delhi to Bangalore. Having to start life from scratch, he became a waste picker. Bangalore offered him the veil of anonymity from his past. After a few years in the profession, he met a Hasiru Dala activist and became associated with the organization. Recognizing his potential in running a micro-enterprise, organization offered him to operate one of the 33 Dry Waste Collected Centers (DWCC), located in Gottigere, installed by Municipal Corporation…

Pic courtesy: Janaagraha Smt G Padmavathi, Mayor, BBMP and Mr N Manjunath Prasad, IAS, Commissioner, BBMP launched the MyCityMyBudget (MCMB) programme of Janaagraha, to gather budget requests from citizens for the City Budget 2017-18. MCMB will gather budget requests from citizens’ on three tracks; 1) through workshops facilitated by the MCMB team at Resident Welfare Associations, schools, colleges, urban poor communities, workers groups and corporates, 2) online at www.ichangemycity.com, and 3) through the Budget bus that will collect inputs from citizens on the streets. Citizens can provide budget requests across any civic issue through a simple form at the workshops…