City: Bengaluru

  Bengaluru this week May 7th 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     While this edition of our newsletter is much briefer than usual, it features several interesting stories. Read about how public land near Sankey tank is now in the hands of Mantri developers. Also check out what a reader has to say about the challenges faced by her apartment in waste segregation. We also have a new blog post that will take you back in time. Happy reading! Here’s a look at the latest news from Bengaluru, before we get…

Uncertainty surrounding the BBMP election seems to have ended, with the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordering the Karnataka government to conduct the polls within three months. In a turn of events, senior advocate Kapil Sibal who represented the Karnataka government submitted before the Apex Court that the government will hold the BBMP polls within three months. Senior advocate V Laxminarayana, who represented the petitioners, the BBMP corporators, gave Citizen Matters a brief of what went on inside the court hall. The government advocate, Kapil Sibal clarified to the Supreme Court that the State government will not restructure the BBMP before…

footpath noun A path for pedestrians in a built-up area; a pavement. A path for people to walk along. Source: www.oxforddictionaries.com If Bengaluru’s footpaths could talk, they’d have many a tale to tell. Perhaps about the mounds of garbage that are dumped on them… Or about people pitching camp to sell their wares, or sometimes even build their homes. While some could claim that they have sent people to the hospital with injuries, some others would state that they have claimed lives! Even today, when there is so much conversation about road safety, and despite pedestrians being at the fore…

Kathri. Scissors. That was the connection that first brought this man into my life. In my salad days, learning to ride a bicycle was not quite what it is today. One did not have access to bicycles to fit one’s age, no trainer wheels, no helmets, knee pads, nothing. One borrowed a bicycle from one’s siblings or other kinfolk. You started with simple strokes that were not written down in any DIY manual. It was community education. Peers, neighbor uncles, one’s own kin, or someone or the other would help you learn. You went out, took several spills, and got…

Continuous stream of traffic does not let people cross the road. Pic: Reji Thomas The new one-way system introduced on the stretch from the Madivala Checkpost to Krupanidhi College, on Sarjapur Road has resulted in chaos and a terrible, unbearable traffic situation on this stretch. The residents in these localities woke up on April 26th morning and were shocked and surprised to experience that they could not come out of their houses and localities where they have been living for the last several decades. The one-way system introduced on April 26th, 2015 does not allow residents to take their cars…

RMV Clusters residents participating in a spot fix. Pic: Renuka Mani This is a story of how active residential complexes are basically left to fend for themselves in light of the gross mismanagement of garbage by BBMP, and sometimes callous attitude of the officials, leading to utter failure of the entire GMS (Garbage Management System). RMV Clusters Phase 2, Lottegollahalli, Ward-8, Kodigehalli, comprises about 240 residential units/ flats. We, the residents have taken an active interest in garbage management and have been trying to find solutions to their issues for the last 2.5 years. We, as active and concerned citizenry,…

  Bengaluru this week May 4th 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     With the long weekend out of the way, we’re sure all of you are once again knee-deep in work. Well, so are we… Here’s a look at the latest news from Bengaluru, before we get into our stories: Namma Metro's Reach 3B that runs from Peenya Industrial Area to Nagasandra was inaugurated on May 1st​. A few activists who protested against the absence of toilet and drinking water facilities in the Metro stations were arrested. Bengaluru Urban district administration…

The land abutting Sankey lake where an apartment from Mantri Developers is proposed to come up. Pic courtesy: Google Earth No one will miss the pristine forest area abutting Sankey Tank in Malleshwaram, just next to Aranya Bhavan, the State Forest Department building. The cool water in the lake and the woods nearby make the place a walkers’ paradise, with the chirping birds and thriving vegetation. This sight, it looks like will not last longer, with the Karnataka Government losing its appeal in the High Court against the land transaction and the owner of the land ready with a development…

Various citizen groups get together to protest the construction of Mantri Apartments near Sankey lake. Pic: Pavan Kulkarni On Sunday morning, May 3rd, over 250 residents of Malleshwaram and Sadashivnagar area marched around the Sankey lake on the walking path, shouting slogans and holding placards, denouncing the Mantri Developers that is likely to constructed an apartment beside the lake and demanding that the Sankey lake be saved. Sankey Walkers association, Malleshwaram Swabhimana Initiative (MSI), Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF), Sadashivnagar Residents Welfare Association, Citizen’s Action Forum (CAF) and a number of other organisations came together to form a Save Sankey Forum…

There were less of suggestions and more of ire against the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) at the public meeting convened by the BDA to seek suggestion and opinion from public before drafting the Revised Master Plan-2031. Bengalureans who are upset over the routine exercise of convening meetings before introducing the RMP, used the opportunity to attack BDA for the kind of mess it has created in the city. The BDA convened a public meeting on RMP-2031 at Ambedkar Bhavan in Miller’s Road on Wednesday. Members of Citizen Action Forum (CAF), the city-based civic group, questioned the BDA’s power to call…