City: Bengaluru

In Part I of the series, the viewpoint of plastic manufacturing industry was captured. Part II of the series explored what could be done with plastic. Part III explored the green job options that will get created because of plastic ban. Here is part IV. Every time a city inundates in deluge, the primary reason seems to be the drains getting choked with plastic. Low weight plastic carry bags that are of low recycling value end up on roadsides or garbage dumps, causing water logs during unexpected rains. The health impacts of plastic are numerous. All this together prompted the…

Look at this video. Rain water—rather more of a cesspool—greenish, smelly water—collected in an open abandoned granite mine, being filled in a "Drinking Water" tanker. The location is right next to RBD Stillwaters (next to Lakedew Lake/ Puravankara Skywoods), in Harlur near Parappana Agrahara Main Road and Kudlu Road, on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Such tankers also deliver drinking water to many residential projects including apartments. They also deliver water for upcoming constructions in the nearby areas. Banibrata Dutta, a concerned resident who lives in an apartment near Sarjapur Road, shot this video. He says: “Who knows, it could even…

Which street in Bengaluru do you like the most? Does the street that you like the most have all the facilities that make it better than the rest? Well, the latest Street Quality Score by Janaagraha has come out with the top four and bottom four streets in Bengaluru which is the result of a survey conducted in the last three months. The survey has measured the quality of roads in Bengaluru based on five criteria namely, walkable footpaths, pedestrian crossing, street lighting, bus stops and air pollution. The report has picked up following four roads of being better off…

I answered the doorbell a few weeks ago to a blue inland letter. Selvaraj thatha, the resident guardian of my building smiled gummily at my furrowed brow as he handed it over. Late night online impulse purchases ensure a steady stream of parcels that thatha receives on my behalf, but an inland letter was a novelty and he was curious to know what had occasioned it. I gingerly eased open the letter and found that it was from my library. Among other things, the letter said that the good folks at Eloor library, Bangalore were looking forward to seeing me…

The Bengaluru City Police don’t have authority to regulate traffic, drunk driving and speed on this private toll road. As a result of unchecked speed and not following regulations, there are deadly accidents every year on this road. When asked to take action, the company asks the government to disapprove any kind of inspection from police, and removes speed limits set for the road. And we are talking about NICE road, built by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE). Citizen Matters had published an article Top 10 acciden-prone places in Bengaluru based on the data collected from Bangalore Traffic Police. Electronic…

Now an annual fest at namma Turahalli forest, Turahalli Day was celebrated on December 6th 2015. The day began by around 6.30 am with people gathering under the banyan tree. Ganeshram and Anurag, who were there to go on a plant walk, were already in a ‘taxonomic’ discussion with Ravee. A few others joined them and off they went on a green path. Here's the highlight of the plant walk, in Ganeshram's words: "One of the topics that was underlying the whole walk was the importance of forests and native flora and how it affects us. The other was how knowledge…

Bengaluru is included alongside 75 of the biggest cities of the world in a survey of global youth. Your response could help Bengaluru be a more livable city. Over the last two decades, Bengaluru has witnessed rapid growth of urbanisation. This has also brought a plethora of formidable challenges for the city, such as traffic congestion, urban sprawl, poor infrastructure and a perceived lack of basic facilities such as drinking water, Solid and Liquid Waste Disposal. It is very unfortunate that, although Bengaluru has transformed into an internationally known metropolis and mostly known to the world as the Silicon Valley…

  Bengaluru this week December 10th 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     We’re happy to inform you that Citizen Matters was one of three finalists in the first ever #innovationforgood award, instituted by the Centre for Work, Technology and Social Change in collaboration with SASNET at Lund University, Sweden. We received the honorary prize at the Media and Innovation Days Conference on December 9th 2015, at New Delhi. Our #EnableChange fundraiser is running for only 6 more days and we still need to raise 50% of our target of Rs 5,00,000.…

Following a sea of controversy surrounding this season’s Bangalore Literature Festival, naturally there was much excitement in the air over the talks and discussions at the lit fest. As I entered the venue of the lit fest on Day -1, the first thing that effortlessly drew my attention in the events schedule was the list of sessions marked under the bold heading “Left Wing” and “Right Wing.” However, my efforts to decipher the code by reading the topics through a sharp eye, went in vain. The sessions on both the stages were evenly distributed, with no clue on left and…

In July 2005, when 900 mm of monsoonal rains hammered Mumbai for a 24-hour period and wreaked havoc on the city’s infrastructure and housing, political leaders in Karnataka reassured us that Bengaluru was immune to flooding given its inland location some 3,000 ft above sea-level on the Deccan Plateau. Those assurances proved foolhardy. In October that year, over half of Bengaluru’s road network was inundated and thousands of homes and commercial establishments damaged following four days of unusually strong monsoonal rainfall. Floods in Bengaluru during October 2005, in Bommanahalli area. Pic: Champaka Rajagopal Ten years later, Chennai continues to reel…