City: Bengaluru

BBMP has created an Action Plan on waste management for the next 1.5 years. It will submit the plan in High Court in a hearing on November 6th. HC has been hearing two PILs that are asking for BBMP to dispose of solid waste properly. Two parties - an Indiranagar resident named Kavitha Shankar, and an advocate G R Mohan - had filed separate cases in HC. The two cases have clubbed together by the Court. In these cases, last month the court had directed BBMP to collect segregated waste, to put realistic penalties on citizens who do not segregate…

Filmmaking is a hard profession to break into. But after more than a decade of documentary filmmaking the transition is rather smooth, especially when the subject is as exciting as a little girl in ladakh and her efforts to go to school. Priya Ramasubban, who calls herself a storyteller has made films for National Geographic, Discovery, History Channel and other major international broadcasters. She is now raising funds to make her first ever feature film ‘Chuskit' based on the children's book ‘Chuskit goes to school,' published by Pratham Books. The book is authored by Sujatha Padmanabhan and is inspired on…

23-year-old Basketball player, Kruthika Lakshman, bagged the Eklavya Awards for the year 2011-12. She is originally from Mysore but has been in Bangalore for the last 10 years. She was admitted to Sports School, Vidya Nagar,Yelahanka in 2003 and that's where her career started. Interestingly, she chose volleyball game at the sports school, but was pulled into basketball team because of her height. Since then there has been no looking back. In the six months, after she joined the Sports school, she started playing at the state level and finally in December 2006 she represented India.She says it was her…

Jay Zende, a 41 year old Maharashtrian from Mumbai, made Bangalore his home, eight years ago and started a new venture ‘BooksTALK'. He along with the co-founder Jayashree Mantri Easwaran, both hailing from different backgrounds, came up with the concept of making books talk, early last year. These books are read by actors and sometimes even the authors, instead of voice-over artistes, to make the listening experience better.  Zende talks to Citizen Matters about his venture, city, and how he has been ‘Koramangala'ed since the time he settled here. Jay Zende - Co-founder of BooksTALK. Pic: Anisha Nair How did…

We often tend to think of flowers as a thing of beauty, only to be admired. They look very pretty, whether cultivated carefully in the garden, or flowering in the wilderness...and often, they cast a beautiful scent around them, too. Right now, we have the Akasha Mallige trees in full bloom, a heady fragrance wafts through the air when we pass by them.But there are flowers which are good to eat, too! One such flower is the bloom of the banana (plantain) tree. Banana Flower. Pic: Deepa Mohan The banana plant produces a single inflorescence, also known as the banana…

Some of us residents from Bellandur Ward, representing about 19 apartment complexes, in and around Sarjapur Road, Outer Ring Road and Haralur Road have decided to work together to find common solutions to the Solid Waste Management problem. We will also work together to identify vendors and if possible, standardize process. As I read what is written in newspapers and various discussion threads, I find a huge disconnect on one count. I believe people want to segregate provided we don’t make it sound like rocket science, which the newspapers do. Our apartment on Sarjapur Road had initiated segregation 18 months…

The Bangalore Mizo Association, an association formed by Mizo's living in Bangalore, celebrated Vangpui Kut. The festival was held to spread the message of peace, unity and friendship among all communities living in Bangalore. Vangpui Kut has been a regular feature in Bangalore and it is only this year that the organisers have made an attempt to open its doors to friends, colleagues and well wishers from other communities in Bangalore, keeping in mind the recent crisis that had caused a massive exodus of North Easterns from Bangalore. Mizo dancers performing Cheraw, a traditional bamboo dance. Pic courtesy: Trigam Mukherjee…

On 7th October, the HSRx Federation organised a walkathon to the Somasundara Palya lake. More than 300 residents were there to demand that the lake be saved from encroachment and restored to its natural state. The walkathon started from Somasundara Palya circle (via DHL, Smart Retail store, EB power grid, turned left near Parangipalya Road and ended at the lake. Related articles: Haralukunte Kere getting filled with construction debris HSR federation interacts with MLA ABiDE member Dr Ashwin Mahesh said with more problems to be fixed in our neighbourhoods, they can be solved only by increasing the number of problem…

Vaishnavi Vittal, former staff journalist at Citizen Matters, has won the Laadli Media Award for the best Web Investigative report - "Government ignores us because we aren't educated and rich".   Citizen Matters ran the article in July 2010. Population First, with the support of the UNFPA announced the winners of The Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity (Southern Region) 2011-12. The jury, which included highly esteemed members of the media, selected the winners from around 179 entries received from across southern India, comprising Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshwadeep and Puducherry. Vaishnavi Vittal recieved the award…

Bengaluru's apartments are yet again at the receiving end of civic agencies' policies. This time over Waste management. While BBMP is pushing the pedal to ensure solid waste is segregated, it says it will not collect garbage from apartments. Some time back, large apartments were asked to set up their own Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) since BWSSB did not have the capacity or coverage to process their sewage. Some were suddenly slapped steep fines last year by KSPCB because of an obscure rule. Now BBMP has ordered that apartments should have their own garbage processing facilities by December 1st. Within…