City: Bengaluru

Bengaluru will soon have 8600 CCTV cameras monitoring activity in public spaces. While the city currently has around 1,100 such cameras, another 7,500 would be added as part of a new 'Safe City' project. One key objective of the project, financed by the Center's Nirbhaya fund, is to monitor, detect and prevent crimes against women. What would this massive surveillance project entail - who will look at the footage, how will it be used, and what are the expected outcomes? Here's what we found, based on the tender documents for the project. The Centre had approved Safe City projects for…

Given Bengaluru's building boom, the city has a vast number of Residents Welfare Associations (RWA). But few RWA members are aware of the complex laws and rules that have to be complied with for transfer of ownership of the building complex from the builder to the RWA. The process of financial, legal, operational and other technical issues regarding the handover can be a long and tedious process.  On June 25th, ADDA, an Apartment Society Management & Accounting Software, in collaboration with Citizen Matters and the Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF), organised an event consisting of two panel discussions and sessions on…

Groaning as it is from an estimated loss of Rs 1019.72 crore as stated in the 'Programme for 2020-21' section of the Annual Administrative Report of 2019-20, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has now been hit by another whammy, the increase in fuel costs.. “As of July 15, 2022, there is a difference of Rs 32 per litre on diesel supplied to retail fuel stations and bulk consumers, like the BMTC,” says a source from the BMTC. That is the additional cost that BMTC is faced with as its buses line up at retail petrol pumps for their daily diesel…

The Karnataka government has of late been mulling a solution to the problem of stray dog attacks. Prabhu Chauhan, Minister for Animal Husbandry, has said they are considering making Bengaluru stray-dog-free through vaccination and sheltering. The Karnataka High Court has also issued a notice to the state government on a PIL seeking effective stray dog management. In this interview with Citizen Matters, animal ecologist and conservation biologist Dr Abi Tamim Vanak weighs in on the issue. Dr Abi Vanak holds a PhD in Wildlife Science from the University of Missouri, USA. He is currently a Professor at ATREE (Asoka Trust…

Rise in post-COVID brain disorders Post-COVID-19, there has been a rise in reports of brain disorders, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome, Bell’s palsy, insomnia and other behavioural and cognitive issues, said Bengaluru-based neurologists. Neurological complications affecting the brain seem to be the second most common effect. The SARS-CoV-2 virus could affect the lungs and the brain and lead to many complications, including severe headaches, epilepsy or arterial strokes due to altered clotting mechanisms and cerebral venous strokes, peripheral neuropathy, Bell’s palsy, and Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). On July 22nd, World Brain Day, this year's theme is “brain health for all”. As part…

Citizens, activists and lake groups are taking up the cause of protecting and improving Bengaluru’s lakes. Engaged citizens and government agencies need to work together to restore to Bengaluru its old reputation of being the “city of lakes’. But there is widespread confusion on whom to approach regarding specific issues. The chart below shows the various government bodies involved with lakes and the current governance structure. Government bodies involved in managing the lakes of Bengaluru. Pic credit: Sarayu Neelakantan and Sanjana Alex. A list of government bodies responsible for the physical, chemical and ecological status of respective lakes are given…

Over the last three decades, India has seen an increase in internal migration, from 232.11 million in 1991 to 314.54 million in 2001 and to 455.78 million in 2011. The total number of migrant children, between the census of 1991 and 2011, grew from 44.35 million to 92.95 million. As per these figures, one in every five internal migrants is a kid. A majority of whom do not get access to basic education.  Dilip Kumar Anurag, 37 from Bilaspur, Chattisgarh, who came to Bengaluru about a year back, lives in a kucha shack with his wife and two of his…

In the run-up to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections scheduled before the end of this calendar year, Bengaluru’s civil society organisations are getting more active to highlight civic issues that need urgent attention. As a first step, on June 24th, the Civil Society Forum (a coalition of civil society groups based in Bengaluru) submitted its “Manifesto for Development of Bengaluru in next five years” to senior representatives of political parties. The manifesto does not pull any punches. When it says, for instance; “Local self-government, with transparency, accountability and people’s participation, as envisaged in the 74th Constitutional Amendment (CAA)…

The Supreme Court deadline of eight weeks starting May 20 to complete Bengaluru’s ward delimitation exercise was looming. That perhaps left little time for the subcommittee led by Special Commissioner Deepak K L to seriously consider all the 3833 objections that the public had filed on the ward delimitation draft prepared by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Experts, civic groups and individuals had shared their feedback, suggestions and concerns over the ward boundaries in the proposed plan. Concerns included understanding who initiates the ward delimitation process, the shortcomings in relying on 2011 census data and the absence of a…

Notification on ward delimitation After waiting out the 15 days given for filing objections on the ward delimitation draft proposals by BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike), the government on July 14th issued a final order notifying the new wards and their boundaries. As per the notification, the number of wards in the municipality goes up from 198 to 243. Over 3800 objections filed by citizens and citizen groups had been disposed of. While most suggestions were rejected, a few on new ward names proposed in the draft were accepted. For example, Ward 55 will now be named after Puneeth Rajkumar,…