City: Bengaluru

In the wake of fierce citizen opposition to the Sankey Flyover and road widening project, the Citizens of Malleshwaram Constituency came together to create a ‘Climate Action Manifesto 2023-2024’ for their constituency. Citizens for Sankey presented this manifesto to Siddaramaiah of Congress and Dr. Ashwath Narayan, BJP, on March 28th. Read more: 10 guarantees in Aam Aadmi Party’s Karnataka manifesto Summary of the five-point climate action manifesto. Graphic courtesy: Citizens for Sankey "To safeguard the future of our city, our elected representatives and civic bodies must coordinate closely with us citizens when making decisions, which impact us all. A repeat…

Krishna Byre Gowda, from the Indian National Congress (INC), has been the MLA of Byatarayanapura since the constituency was formed in 2008. As part of his campaign to win the fourth term, he interacted with representatives of apartment associations in his constituency on April 9th. The MLA spoke about his achievements and answered key questions from the constituents. He also shared with Citizen Matters his plans for the next term if elected and his stance on certain important issues. The INC team and KBG, as he is popularly called, stressed multiple times on the MLA’s image as a clean and…

Govt 'failed' in education: Civil rights body The government's performance in education has been marked ‘Grade E’ (Fail) by the civil rights group, Bahutva Karnataka. It evaluated the state's performance based on certain parameters, such as the learning abilities of students, implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, communalisation of education, revision of the curriculum, exclusion of students from marginalised communities, infrastructure, among others. The forum, consisting of education experts and student activists, said that its report card is an outcome of evaluation based on the government's performance in relation to its own goals, as well as the constitutional…

On February 19th, the police had registered an FIR against 70 citizens, who took part in a silent march protesting the proposed Sankey road flyover. The protestors were accused of committing various crimes, including unlawful assembly, wrongful restraint, obstruction to any person in any public place. All of which are offenses punishable under the Indian Penal Code. This came to light only when notices were issued in the first weeek of April to those who had participated in the protest. Some weeks later, in Yelahanka, another Bengaluru neighbourhood, several farmers who had been protesting the inadequate compensation provided by the…

The plan to build a 25-foot road right across Hosakerehalli Lake has been stopped. But the result is the vicinity lake being covered in heaps of mud, construction debris and the tire tracks of excavators. Vehement protests by residents living in the lake’s vicinity forced the BBMP to stop the road construction. By then, however, they had already dumped mud into the lake to reclaim the land. According to officials, the road was to facilitate heavy vehicles' movement to carry out the lake's de-silting. However, the protesting residents believe the road was to cater to the existing and new luxury…

Indian National Congress' Dinesh Gundu Rao and the incumbent Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Gandhinagar met with apartment owners in Gandhinagar on April 8th to listen to their grievances. He promised to devise solutions for the same. The former state Minister of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, has won from Gandhinagar five times in a row. He had called out the ruling party for the crumbling infrastructure in the city and criticised the inaction over pothole-ridden roads. He holds a B.E. in Electronics and Communications from BMS College of Engineering.…

When I thought of writing this article my intention was to cover the 100 Feet Road Indiranagar, Inner Ring Road (IRR), and 100 Feet Road Koramangala from end to end, starting from Binnamangala and ending in Madiwala. I planned to cover the whole distance to write about citizens' worries in traversing this road. When I went on the ground to find more details, I didn’t go beyond 100 feet road Indiranagar. There was so much content in the first 2.7 kilometres itself that it was needless to go beyond! The white topping work on the 100 feet road started about…

‘’A man doesn’t plant a tree for himself, he plants it for future generations," Alexander Smith Often, getting cool shade under a tree has become a luxury in Bengaluru. Especially during summer or on a hot day, you can see people and animals standing in the shade of a building, rather than a tree. However, all is not lost. There are people who have planted and nurtured trees, contributing to the preservation of the city’s green canopy. I came across a beautiful majestic banyan tree just in front of Lalbagh, double roadside entrance. I was admiring the sheer size of…

Withdraw FIRs: Sankey road protestors The Sadashivanagar police’s FIR against 70 people, who protested peacefully on February 19th against the proposed Sankey Road flyover, has drawn ire from citizens and Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs), activists, and civic organisations. The group wrote to the Police Commissioner C H Pratap Reddy, and met him on April 5th, demanding the withdrawal of “baseless allegations against the citizens”. The letter was endorsed by over 500 citizens and almost 100 organisations. The case has been transferred to the Halasuru Gate police station. The citizens have been charged with crimes under Sections 143, 341, 283 and…

Environment Support Group (ESG) is a pioneering non-profit environmental organisation, based in Bengaluru. ESG has worked to protect biodiversity and ecosystems, often in collaboration with communities facing the effects of environmental degradation and displacement. They have been actively involved in judicial advocacy that led to landmark judgements and policies in the city. For instance, PILs filed by the organisation on Mavallipura's landfill led to waste segregation rules in Karnataka. The organisation has been vocal in speaking for public commons and environmental justice and has fought several legal battles to prevent destruction of natural resources in the city. ESG was awarded…