City: Bengaluru

It has been eight years now since we started down this path without setting any goals to reach anywhere. It was our son Nihar’s choice to learn at home by making things and working on projects rather than only through books. He proposed that to us, when he entered Class 4, as he felt that he wasn't finding enough time to do the things he wanted to do. As parents, we valued his need to be free from systems and structures and to be motivated by his innate sense of wonder and curiosity. Today, he is 18 and a co-founder…

Do you live in an apartment with its own sewage treatment plant (STP)? Do you know how much of the treated water is reused and how much ends up clogging the city's stormwater drains? Despite laws in place in Bengaluru that mandate the setting up of decentralised plants and 'zero discharge', i.e. for all the treated water to be used up within the apartment fence, turns out reuse levels remain alarmingly low. The city now has over 3,000 decentralised STPs, which treat 615 million litres of sewage every day. Centralised STPs generate another 650 MLD of treated water. But the…

Two-and-half months since the BMTC introduced digital passes, demand for these passes remains low. According to A V Surya Sen, Director (Information Technology) at BMTC, only 17,645 digital passes were active on June 22nd. This comes to less than 1% of BMTC's average daily ridership of 25 lakh. In pre-pandemic times, use of paper passes was common among BMTC passengers. For example, a BMTC survey of 2019 had showed that 48% of those surveyed used paper passes. It seems few have converted to digital passes. Launched on April 6th, the total number of digital passes issued so far (including expired…

BBMP ward delimitation draft out State government notified the draft of the BBMP ward delimitation report on Thursday. As per the draft, the number of BBMP wards will increase from 198 to 243. Ward boundaries have been redrawn based on the 2011 Census population numbers. As per the draft, out of 28 Assembly constituencies in Bengaluru, 17 now have higher ward numbers. Ward numbers have remained the same in eight other constituencies. Whereas three constituencies - Jayanagar, Shivajinagar and Chamarajpet, all ruled by the Congress party - now have fewer wards than earlier. Opposition MLAs called the exercise “gerrymandering” to…

After a long delay, the state government notified the draft of the BBMP ward delimitation report on Thursday, June 23rd. Delimitation would change ward boundaries and increase the number of wards in the city from 198 to 243. The Ward Delimitation Committee, headed by the BBMP Chief Commissioner, submitted the draft report to the government on June 9th. This committee was to redraw ward boundaries based on population data from the 2011 Census. Read more: BBMP elections: Major parties have ready promises, new ones talk citizen empowerment The Karnataka state government's notification on 23rd June mentions it has accepted the…

Not surprisingly, gardening is probably the most common hobby in Namma Bengaluru, which truly was a 'garden city' when I first came here in 1997. However, over the last two decades, we have all been witness to much of that garden space being taken over by concrete. But we Bengalureans still have that in our DNA, to grow plants wherever we live, whether on the 10th floor of an apartment, in a good old typical Bengaluru house in Jayanagar or in a housing community with individual houses. With my farming background, my decision to buy a house was based on…

The handover process with all its financial, operational and technical aspects can be hard to nail down. Yet, it is the most pressing challenge as an association prepares to run the affairs of a community. Issues like late handover and defects within the apartment are common complaints of most individual apartment owners taking possession of their new property. At an association level, however, issues are even more complex and often ignored. The issues range from major defects, incomplete construction, lack of documentation, improper handover of maintenance corpus etc. In a new apartment, a freshly constituted Association’s Managing Committees (MC) may…

Ever since BBMP closed down its RTI (Right to Information) Cell five years back, it's been tougher for citizens to get information about BBMP's decisions and actions. For 11 years (2006 to 2017), the BBMP head office had a fairly active central RTI Cell that accepted all RTI requests. The applicant only had to address the request to the 'PIO (Public Information Officer), BBMP', and the PIO in charge of the RTI Cell would forward the request to the concerned officer. Since the closure of the Cell in 2017, citizens have to identify the specific PIO in charge of the…

If one were to compare the national economy to the human body, highways can be considered the arteries. Like clogged arteries which can be life-threatening, poor roads can derail economic growth. Planning and execution of highway projects have several other implications related to safeguarding the interest of the consumer, environmental impact, prudent contract management etc. One way to be aware of issues of impropriety and poor performance in local government bodies and departments is to track the audit reports from agencies like the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). This article is the sixth in the Series: Understanding Public…

In a previous article, we saw how Electronics City’s Township Authority (ELCITA) manages to keep its roads free of potholes by ensuring good drainage and prompt filling of potholes. Functioning stormwater drains that prevent waterlogging and seepage into road surfaces were identified as an important factor in ensuring pothole-free roads. BBMP too has its own set of guidelines on how to ensure effective drainage of rainwater from roads. In reality, however, whether those guidelines are being followed can be a hit or miss across the city. Residents also play their part by encroaching on roads and drains and dumping garbage…