City: Bengaluru

While aiming for the sun high up in the sky, we tend to stamp on the flowers at our feet. - Anonymous We continue to mix waste, violate laws and lead 'respectable' lives. But these people, who help reduce the trash in our mega-city Bengaluru, are looked down upon for being migrant and poor. Be it ragpickers, sweepers or garbage collectors, they are part of the system too. But their stories are never told. Mohammad Khan (name changed on request) has a long and grey beard that seems to represent his 60 years of experience. Dressed usually in ragged trousers…

Following is the text of objections and recommendations by CIVIC. Rules should be general: They should be applicable to any metropolitan city in Karnataka - not just Bangalore, as many other cities in Karnataka have reached or are fast-approaching the population mark of 10 lakhs and will require MPCs to be set up. Recommendation: The Rules need to be general, to apply to all cities which cross the 10 lakh population limit. Public discussion needs to happen: There has been no prior public intimation of the intention of the government to draft the said Rules as per Section 4(1)(c) and…

Public Affairs Centre (PAC), an independent non-government think tank working in the area of governance and service delivery, has recently completed an assessment of the services provided by BESCOM. The study funded by BESCOM, used the Citizen Report Card (CRC) approach to collect feedback from users as well as the BESCOM staff to understand the quality of service delivery and issues faced by both parties. The aim was to use the information generated through the study to find actionable remedies for issues of concern faced by both users and the BESCOM staff. The study covered all the eight Circles and…

Urban Development Department has published the draft rules for the Constitution of the Metropolitan Planning Committee for the Bangalore Metropolitan Region inviting objections or suggestions. Please find below my submissions after a detailed study: The draft Rules have not been given adequate publicity in the Press and Media. Even till date the notification does not appear in your department’s website. I therefore request you to give wide publicity in the media including publishing on your department’s website and extend the date for receiving suggestions by 30 days. Sec 4(1) c of RTI Act requires you to publish all relevant facts…

The Government of Karnataka has issued the notification outlining the formation of Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC). The long-awaited step has been taken very secretively, with no publicity to this anywhere. Not even the Urban Development Department website has displayed it; nowhere has it been kept for public discussion. The draft notification has been gazetted and published on November 7, 2013, with 15 days for public feedback on the issue - that is on or before November 22, 2013. Problems MPC is supposed to solve Right now Bangalore has too many planning authorities that sanction approvals and plan the land use.…

The report was prepared in 2008 and proposed a different planning structure for Bengaluru region. This report was also taken into consideration by ABIDe, to prepare the Bangalore Regional Governance Bill draft. Also read: MPC draft notification published by Government of Karnataka gazette. This has come into picture now again, in the backdrop of the Karnataka government's move to constitute Metropolitan Planning Committee. You can read the report on the website itself, or download the report by clicking the below link. Dr Kasturirangan Committee Report on BBMP Related ArticlesPlanning power to other civic bodies will be an obstacle to MPCBengaluru…

Road was filled with children playing various games. Pic courtesy: ESAF Bangalore FB page ESAF and HealthBridge in association with Kasturi Nagar Mahila Samaj celebrated children’s day by reclaiming street on 3rd Cross Street, Kasturi Nagar on 17/11/2013, Sunday between 11am – 1pm. Under the leadership and support of Vimala Gowda, President, Kasturi Nagar Mahila Samaj members utilised this opportunity to teach children about the games they played on street when they were children. Traditional games such as Kunte Pillai, Chowka Bhara, Chinese checkers, Chess, Ayuthu mane, pakida atta, cycling and running race were organised by members of ESAF. ESAF,…

A student felicitates a Poura Karmika. Pic courtesy: CMCA Thousands of children from the member schools of Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness will be thanking Pourakarmikas across the city this month. The flag-off event for the Pourakarmika thanksgiving day was celebrated for the seventh consecutive year at the Rajkumar Gajinamane Hall, BBMP Head office, Bangalore. Narayan, the president of the Pourakarmika Union, was present on the occasion. In his speech Narayan said, ”People look down upon Pourakarmikas in the society but an organization like CMCA recognizes the Pourakarmika’s work including health and hygiene. I am really happy about this”. Children…

After going through the news item published in the front page of The Hindu dated 20th November 2013, on the brutal attack on a woman inside the closed ATM in the heart of Bengaluru city, I would like to explain a possible cost-effective remedial measures to avert such criminal incidents in ATM kiosks. Normally we observe that on very next day of a holiday or in other occasions, rolling shutters of many ATMs partially closed or fully closed due to non availability of cash or for any fault in the system and no notice board is placed on rolling shutter…

The Karnataka High Court comprising of a bench of Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice S N Satyanarayana rapped the government for having no action plan to clear encroachments despite having evidences with them. The Chief Justice accepted on record Namma Bengaluru Foundation’s detailed aide-memoire inter-alia listing out a representative list of large scale encroachments of government lands; the memo enlists details of 13 major encroachments in Bengaluru urban and rural district as mentioned in the JLC and Task Force report. Namma Bengaluru Foundation’s writ petition filed in public interest seeks the recovery of the land encroached as indicated…