City: Bengaluru

In its March meeting, BBMP Council approved the new parking policy which would allow BBMP to collect parking fee from citizens. As per this policy, parking will be charged across the city, and parking lots will be set up in all areas. The policy aims to encourage public transport and reduce land use for parking. BBMP is now waiting for a study commissioned by state government’s DULT (Department of Urban Land Transport). This study will look at public transport and existing parking availability, identify parking demand and also areas where parking lots can be set up. DULT has commissioned the…

The Citizen Action Forum (CAF), a federation of RWAs will be sharing their inputs on Bangalore’s Master Plan 2035 with BDA. On May 7th, BDA had quietly begun a process of revision for Bengaluru's city master plan, and invited suggestions from public. This plan will be for the years 2016 to 2035. CAF along with Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) and various individual RWAs will respond at a federation as well as individual level. Inputs to this process can be at two distinctive levels, at a micro and macro level. At a micro level, i.e. the rules and regulations governing various…

N S Ramakanth  and Dr Ashwin Mahesh interacted with residents of HSR Layout  on June 24 and a wide range of topics were discussed at length including Khata, solar power, solid waste management and reviving lakes. Balasubramanian Thirunavukkarasu, active citizen and resident of HSR Layout, was instrumental in organising the One Bengaluru meeting.  One Bangalore meeting. Pic: Balasubramanian Thirunavukkarasu One Bengaluru The meeting is the first such one as part of the One Bengaluru initiative. One Bengaluru is a platform to bring together people interested in public problem solving. Thirunavukkarasu said, "There are lot of well meaning citizens in our…

The third edition of Mashable's Social Media Day is being celebrated by social media enthusiasts all across the world on June 30. It  is a day to recognise the digital revolution happening across the world.Bangalore is playing host to a city wide celebration on the day organised by Graffiti Collaborative, a creative agency based out of the city (www.thegraffiti.co). Social Media enthusiasts from across the city are coming together to make the event a fabulous blend of fun and knowledge sharing – truly in the spirit of social media. The celebrations for the day will be span across different media…

“Having a headache?” Take Anacin. “Having loose motions?” Take Norflox or Flagyll. I am sure all of us have witnessed this conversation sometime or other. People self prescribe antibiotics, and even steroids. TV and media advertising support this trend. Remember that old TV ad? “Headache?” “yes” “Nose blocked ?” “Oh yes” “Cough?” “Yes man yes” “Kutch Lete Kyun nahin? (Why don’t you take something?)” And a jingle follows recommending a common medicine. How many of us know that self medication can be dangerous, or perhaps how many of us really care? Do we know that Aspirin (in Anacin) can lead…

Respected Chief Minister, I write to you with considerable sadness, that a liked and respected politician today stands accused of unlawfully obtaining a G category site from the government. It is extremely unfortunate that we have reached this moment. I have known the Minister to be a good person, and I hope this allegation is not true. I hope there is a fair and tenable explanation to rebut what is said. At the same time, I urge you to take some steps to remedy the situation that has brought us here, so that we may not come to it repeatedly…

We all know the delight of having good food to eat when we are hungry; it must be the same for the other creatures who share our living spaces.Nature provides such a variety in the food for her various children. The food chain generally ensures that each type of creature makes another its food, and in its turn, becomes food, too. Bees on a flower. Pic: Deepa Mohan You can see, in this photo, the bees buzzing around the stamens of the flower. At the base of the stamen is the nectar that is their food, and while they get…

Beads of sweat trickle down Rohit Upadhyay’s face as he raises the air pistol and aims for the target at the far end. Concentrating at the target, he steadies his breathing and squeezes the trigger. He hits the target two circles outside the bull’s eye. It is Upadhyay’s first tryst with shooting and he is visibly thrilled. After completing his session, he says, “My experience with shooting had been limited to video games and balloon shooting stalls at fairs. This is intense. I might take it up as a sport,” says Upadhyay, 27, a software engineer and a resident of…

A government First Grade College at Frazer town in Bangalore city operates in a Tamil primary school without having sufficient classrooms and infrastructure. Despite being allocated enough funds in 2010 for building construction, the college authorities have failed to get a land for the same. The college has achieved 80 percent result in the last year. Around 50 students have been placed in reputed companies, the teachers are excellent, says B V Krishnappa, Principal of the college. “But we don’t have resources to run the college in a proper way. We have funds, but we could not find a land…

Sometimes it is good to step back a few paces, to get a better view and perspective. So it was, that earlier this week I accessed the online editions of the city’s papers while travelling out of the country and got a stark perspective that hit harder than when I see the same cityscape in person. Under the lead items on June 20th, there was a video strip showing pictures taken around the city. One was of the homeless, huddled along a pavement, and another was of a swanky flyover with vehicles whooshing along a curve. The contrast between the…