City: Bengaluru

Bangalore, now Bengaluru, has become a melting pot of cultures. A plate of vaangi bath here, and Char Sui Bao there; an Iyer mami here, a sister Susie there; a house with monkey-tops here, a glass-panelled 17-storey building there. Every one of these is reminiscent of the changing culturescape of the city. Here are five videos that pay homage to our very own Bean Town, in their own special way. Humble beginnings To start off, here is a video that traces how the founder of Bengaluru, Hiriya Kempegowda developed Bengaluru. This video was screened when Bengaluru International Airport was renamed…

B.PAC is working with Hasiru Mithra (the HSR Layout residents’ initiative) and Syngene on a neighbourhood cleanup drive. This will be a sustained campaign to drive corporate social engagement that brings corporates, neighborhood communities and BBMP together to clean, drive behavioural change and monitor progress. Employees and residents of the neigbourhood work together to beautify their locality and appoint wardens who will keep watch on the neighbourhood to ensure that the cleaned up areas do not relapse into their original state. Cleanup drive on January 30th The 27th main road in HSR Layout is one of the prime roads in the…

High Court Order on Segregation and Penalties 17 Dec 2015 Text version of 2 bin- 1bag court order: These writ petitions are filed in public interest, complaining of inefficient Solid Waste Management by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP for short). We have already issued several directions for proper solid waste management in Bengaluru City. We have been monitoring the same. In the course of this monitoring, we have noticed that the garbage crisis in Bengaluru was caused due to indiscriminate dumping of mixed waste to the landfill with no processing or any treatment of the leachate to prevent ground…

Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) on behalf of the citizens of Bengaluru city had submitted a petition to the Karnatala Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) on November 9th 2015 against BESCOM’s unsafe electrical installations across the city. Prior to this, B.PAC conducted an on-field survey covering 21 locations, identifying more than 200 dangerous electrical installations, awaiting major tragedies to happen. The pictures submitted were self-explanatory that none of these installations fulfilled the safety norms recommended by the Central Electricity Authority. Pics: B.PAC B.PAC requested the commission to direct BESCOM to replace all dangerous installations in public access areas on priority. The…

  Bengaluru this week January 28th 2016     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     This week, we present to you several stories that will make you think about the time we spend on the road - What is the toll that bad roads take on the economy? Should Bengaluru adopt the odd-even policy? Does the city really need dedicated lanes for cyclists? How a new railway track to Tirupathi could possibly decongest traffic on Old Madras Road. We also invite you to collaborate with us to document Bengaluru for a new series. This…

For 11,595 lake encroachers in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts, February 29th is the deadline. They can submit their grievances or objections in response to the notices served to them by revenue officials, on encroachment. Though this date may be extended for a few more days, not much time is left for those who wish to communicate their version to the committees headed by tahsildars of respective taluks. This also gives a chance to those who have information on encroachments to share it with the committee. A 11-member Committee of the Legislative Assembly headed by K B Koliwad, Ranebennur MLA…

Tinsheds at the EWS quarters in Ejipura were razed to the ground in January 2013. Pic: Karthik Ranganathan The Karnataka Slum Janara Sanghatanegala Okkoota has organised a public hearing on the 28th of January. 12 slums from six districts across the state have been identified to highlight the socio-economic and cultural antecedents of slum evictions, and the untold human cost of evictions especially on children, women and the aged.  Date: January 28th 2016 Time: 10 am to 5.30 pm Venue: Gandhi Bhavan, Shivananda Circle Overall, there will be cases of 12 slums, each with a slum profile, the life experience of…

The Delhi’s Odd-Even experiment has ended. The Jury is still out on the outcome of this ‘Odd-Even’ experiment, i.e. reduction in pollution. There is no concrete evidence to prove one way or the other. Pollution reduction numbers may not be visible instantaneously with the absence of vehicles partially on roads in just 15 days. However, people of Delhi ensured high compliance to the odd-even rule, leading to success of this experiment in terms of less traffic. The Chief Justice of India’s voluntary compliance in spite of having the waiver just reiterates the citizen’s desire for healthier environments and surroundings, in…

It is worrisome that Bangalore is as famous for its potholed roads as it is for its IT industry. According to a conservative government estimate, at this time, Bengaluru is home to about 4000 potholes with varying degrees of hazard associated with them. Indeed, last September, one such pothole claimed the life of a young woman when she suffered head injuries due to a fall. While calculating the cost of a life is nearly impossible, there are other costs associated with potholes that can be estimated. First, there is the cost of slow-moving traffic that leads to loss of productive…

A screen-grab of the Republic Day Parade 2015. Pic: YouTube The Republic Day 2016 ceremonial parade will be held at the Field Marshal Manekshaw Parade Grounds on Cubbon road on January 26th at 9 am. His Excellency, the Governor of Karnataka will receive the salute. The City Traffic Police has made the following traffic arrangements in and around the area. Parking and entry into Parade Ground Invitees with Yellow Car Passes are requested to come on to Cubbon road and enter Gate No.1 facing the northern side of the parade ground, and park their vehicles on the western side of…