City: Bengaluru

Action after garbage trucks cause fatal accidents After three fatal accidents caused by BBMP garbage trucks, the city traffic police conducted a special drive and booked 307 trucks for violations such as signal jumps and defective number plates. BBMP has made fitness certificates mandatory for the trucks, and marshals have been deployed to inspect the vehicles at mustering points every day. BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said the new garbage contracts would include a clause mandating the use of new vehicles. BBMP also decided to install speed governors in 600 compactors to restrict their speed to 35 kmph. BBMP, along with…

A lone tempo with jumbo bags hanging from the edges and plastic bags  of mixed waste piled high in the van are a familiar sight  in Bengaluru. Despite the fact that in the last few years, wards that started to use separate vehicles to collect different streams of waste saw much better quality of waste collection. It ensured waste that was easy to recycle did not get sent to landfills or burnt on the wayside. Recently, BBMP said they plan to discontinue sending separate vehicles to collect dry waste and will look at a single vehicle having compartmentalised spaces collecting…

This January, as part of a larger programme to make all bus travel free, Boston city set aside eight million dollars to introduce free bus travel on certain routes. Making bus travel free was first tried out in US in the 1970s. The idea caught on and by 2017, 96 such programmes have been recorded globally. In India, Delhi has presently made free bus travel free for women. Can Bengaluru think along similar lines? The city's bus network BMTC (Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation) currently has among the highest fares in the country, making it unaffordable to many. Besides, the city…

Tired of the constant digging up of roads, residents of Ward 45, Malleswaram took to the streets to conduct a peaceful walk called #SAAKU walk on March 6th, 2022, to highlight their issues. While their walk managed to get the attention of the bureaucracy and the politicians, nothing much changed on the ground. Instead of sitting quietly for the authorities to wake up and hope that they keep up their promises, Malleswaram residents decided to take further steps. Here is what they did next. Seeing all this angst of citizens and the enthusiasm during the first Saaku walk, we decided…

Walking on the streets of namma Bengaluru is an adventure in itself. Not a road left untouched and footpaths non-existent or in disarray; all in the name of development. On March 6th, 2022, to highlight the multiple problems residents are facing because of the unending work on their roads and other infrastructure for months and years, residents of Ward 45, Malleswaram took to the streets to conduct a peaceful walk called #SAAKU walk. The half kilometre walk was from Malleswaram bus stand at 18th cross to 11th cross, 4th Main. Here is what the residents of Malleswaram did: The problem…

Making public spaces safe for women, in particular, is not rocket science. Nor is it an expensive high tech exercise. Yet with little action being taken, collecting ground data can help raise awareness of the issue and convince authorities to act. With this in mind, Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) in collaboration with CGI, conducted a safety audit of public places in Malleshwaram and Mahadevapura Assembly Constituencies as a pilot project. The areas were chosen based on preset criteria - Malleshwaram being one of the oldest constituencies and Mahadevapura - one of the newer ones. Some of the locations audited.…

Low demand for booster dose Only 8,041 people in the 18-59 year age group had taken the COVID booster dose in Karnataka as of April 14, five days after private hospitals were allowed to administer it. Of them, 86.97% (6,994 people) are from BBMP limits. Bengaluru has the highest number of private hospitals and private vaccination centres in the State. Given the low demand, the offer by vaccine manufacturers to compensate the slashed vaccine prices with additional doses has not gone down well with private hospitals. Many want a refund from the manufacturers instead. Dr H M Prasanna, president of…

Loss of income. More debt. The adverse impact on employment and livelihoods because of the first few lockdowns continue to haunt low-income neighbourhoods in Bengaluru even as the city struggles to return to a kind of new normal. This was revealed in a Bengaluru COVID impact survey (BCIS) by Azim Premji University, in collaboration with nine Civil Society Organizations (CSO). The survey covered 3,000 vulnerable households in 92 low-income settlements across 39 wards in the city, in October-November, 2021. The survey’s findings included employment and income losses, debt, food security and reach of government support measures on a cross-section of…

In January 2013, the BBMP forcibly evicted over 5,000 people from Ejipura slum, near Koramangala. Those who protested faced police action and detention. The residents, who were paying rent of Rs 1,000-1,500 for the tin sheds there were too poor to afford rent elsewhere. They also felt cheated - in the mid-2000s, the BBMP Council had passed a resolution that they would be provided flats, and had issued them 'guruthina cheetis' (ID cards). After their eviction, these people were left to fend for themselves. Some lived on the pavements, some left the city, some found accommodation elsewhere, and a few…

I am Poongothai from Ward No. 194 Gottigere. I took part in the MyCityMyBudget Campaign organised by Janaagraha. BBMP in its Budget book mentioned the campaign and allocated funds for the same. Gottigere ward map. Pic credit: Janaagraha.org Footpaths might sound like a trivial issue. But it cannot be overlooked. Pedestrian infrastructure plays a vital role in sustainable urban traffic. Footpaths, a sub-aspect of pedestrian infrastructure, should be given priority to make it user friendly, improve walkability, safety and comfort of pedestrians. Footpaths are a basic need in road infrastructure. Hence, as demanded by citizens of our ward, we decided…