City: Bengaluru

Difference between the topography of the land between Kasavanahalli and Kaikondrahalli lakes, in 2002 and 2016, as seen on Google Earth. The Southern Bench of National Green Tribunal has dismissed the petition of Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) and Mahadevpura Parisara Samrakshane Mattu Abhivrudhi Samiti (MAPSAS) related to a residential project coming up between Kasavanahalli and Kaikondarahalli lakes. Stating that the case on the grounds that the developer has a valid Environmental Clearance, the NGT dismissed the petition and allowed the developer of Shriram Chirping Woods to continue with the project.In an order delivered on April 26th, NGT bench comprising Dr…

They don't go to theatres to watch cinema. They can save no money with the earnings they make. They have many occupation-related health issues, yet their medical expense is just about 12,000 per annum! This is the fate of finances /revealed by a recent survey on garment workers. Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU) is an independent trade union of garment workers in Karnataka. Centre for Workers Management (CWM) is a research organisation working on issues of labour standards and labour rights in the formal and informal sector in India. Both these organisations worked together to do a study on…

A number of articles have been written about step-by-step approach to fill the Online Form for payment of property tax this year. I am writing this article on the failure of the new system and what went wrong since lakhs of tax payers could not make payments till date. BBMP is in a big muddle for having introduced a software overnight without proving the efficacy of the new system. I am giving below the reasons for such a failure. The matter is in the hands of the concerned BBMP Commissioners who are probably not taking into consideration, the actual state…

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has introduced new norms for nitrogen level in the treated water that comes out from a sewage treatment plant. The step is meant to control nitrogen levels in the drinking water bodies. The new standards are made applicable to all STPs including those in Residential Apartment Complexes, Commercial Complexes and the large STPs of Urban Local Bodies ( ULB) such as City Municipal Corporation, Town Municipal Corporation etc. in Karnataka. The new notification limits Ammonia Nitrogen content and Total Nitrogen content to 5 mg/L and 10 mg/L respectively in treated domestic sewage. The…

Before we get into our stories for the week, two quick announcements... We are organising a two-day workshop for teens - Journalism for Young Citizens - at Atta Galatta on May 3rd and 4th. For more information and to register, click here. Several Bangaloreans are running at the TCS 10K in support of Citizen Matters, to raise funds for coverage on specific topics. See Shilpi for Lakes and Thej for Open Data. Pledge your support today! Property Tax No update yet on extension of deadline for 5% discount on property tax; if you are paying today, here is the guide:…

This document details about the struggle an apartment community had to face and eventually how they got the khatha. It also list out few suggestions for getting khatha faster and in a transparent way. The apartment falls in Mahadevpura constituency and Bellandur Ward in Kasavanahalli area. ARO office for the apartment complex falls in Marathahalli BBMP office and JC/DC office falls in Mahadevapura BBMP office. May 2015 i.We did the groundwork of understanding the khata process from Citizen Matters post, BBMP site and Sakala website. Below are the links that I referred. Citizen Matters article: Citizen Matters BBMP Site: http://bbmp.gov.in/khatha-services Sakala…

Man-hole cleaning. Pic: Thamate Munuswamy, hailing from Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu, and Jagannatha, hailing from Chittor district in Andhra Pradesh, died due to asphyxiation from lack of oxygen and an excess of methane gas while cleaning up a 15-foot man-hole in Doddaballapur on April 3rd 2016. They were working for a Hyderabad-based contractor firm, Raus Construction Pvt. Ltd., who had signed an agreement with the Doddaballapur Municipal Commissioner for providing the under-ground draining system in Doddaballapur. Seeing Munuswamy and Jagannatha suffocate, two youngsters from Doddaballapur, Madhu, a garment worker and Muniraju, an aquarium worker, tried to rescue them but…

BBMP, BDA, BESCOM, BWSSB, and other organisations should stop the practice of accepting deposits and payments from developers on behalf of home owners. Instead, they should set up a system by which the home owners can directly make the payments themselves, hassle-free. The current practice is leading to an ocean of black money. (a) Monies collected from home owners is often not paid at all to the utilities. (b) Monies collected from home owners is often far in excess of what is due to be paid to the utilities. (c) When money is not paid, the home owners are left…

City planning authorities who often come under fire for their decisions, are facing yet another accusation this time, for sanctioning a mega development project in an ecologically sensitive area. BDA has approved a private residential project in an area comprising valley and buffer zones in Varthur Hobli, while State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) have issued the environmental clearances. The residential project - Shriram Chirping Woods by Shrivision Homes Pvt Ltd - is under construction in an ecologically sensitive area between Kasavanahalli (Harlur) and Kaikondarahalli lakes in Varthur hobli. The area is a…

Citizen Matters had earlier reported that dengue cases in Bengaluru are severely under-reported, that the official dengue figures are only a fraction of the actual numbers. But when it comes to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory diseases etc., the situation is worse - these diseases are not tracked at all in the city. NCDs are now emerging as the leading cause of deaths in India, since communicable diseases like malaria and TB are under better control. But in Bengaluru, like in the rest of the country, no one is tracking them. Without data on these diseases, policy-making…