City: Bengaluru

If last year’s BBMP budget is any indicator, health and education are likely to once again be at the lower end of the allocation scale this year too. With no elected Council, BBMP had sought suggestions directly from citizens on what the 2022-2023 city budget should focus on. It is probably safe to assume that health and education were high on people’s priorities, especially with the impacts of COVID. Yet, infrastructure seems to be the BBMP’s favourite, despite the myriad problems citizens are facing with ongoing delayed and incomplete projects. In the 2021-2022 budget, BBMP's total outlay was Rs 9,286…

BMTC slips to second rank in fleet strength The BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) which held the top spot for running the country's largest bus fleet for several years, has lost it to the DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation). DTC's fleet strength is now 7,001, whereas BMTC's is 6,911. BMTC had recently inducted 90 e-buses, of which 60 are not operational due to the delay in setting up charging infrastructure. A senior BMTC official said that 300 non-AC e-buses will be inducted under lease model by October, and 900 aged buses will be scrapped in a phased manner. The state government's…

Rani N, 48, a fruit vendor who sits opposite RT Nagar post office, is warding off flies from her precious guavas. At night she sits in a barely lit corner, shrouded further by a large red umbrella that protects her from rains. Rani had migrated from Tamil Nadu to Bengaluru over three decades ago as a 16-year-old newly-wed. She and her husband wanted to escape the droughts in Tamil Nadu and pay off their debts.  She has been selling fruits for the past five years. As a relatively new entrant to street vending, Rani has little access to certain areas…

Have you ever looked closely at the plastic packaging waste that you place in your recycling bin? Whether the bags, containers, bottles, wrappers, toys, packaging materials are branded or unbranded? What are the brand names? How are they classified? Do you know what the numbers on the packaging mean? Do all plastic waste actually get recycled? According to Sowmya Raghavan, Member, Solid Waste Management Focus Group, Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF), “All recyclables are not recycled, and all items in the recycle bin are not recyclable." So have you ever thought about conducting an audit of your plastic waste? If yes,…

In Bengaluru, more than two-thirds of plastic waste comprise household products like personal care and food packaging, dominated by milk packaging (KMF, Dodla, Heritage, Milk Mist etc.), which contributes a big chunk of such waste. The use of plastic packaging material has increased over the years particularly with the growth of e-com companies, with Amazon leading the list. Among product companies, the leading brands which use a lot of plastic material to package their products include Unilever, Coca Cola, Reckitt Benckiser, ITC and Britannia. These are the findings from a plastic brand audit exercise, conducted in September 2021. Hasiru Dala…

High allocations for Bengaluru in State budget Presenting the State budget 2022-23, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who also handles the finance portfolio, said that the State's revenues have increased. He did not propose to impose any new tax. He announced allocation of Rs 3,661 crore to all 28 assembly segments in Bengaluru, up from allocation only for BJP MLAs' constituencies earlier. The CM also said that Rs 8,409 crore has been allocated for the comprehensive development of Bengaluru. Of this, Rs 1,500 crore has been earmarked to develop mega stormwater drains to prevent floods. An 'Atal Bihari Vaypayee park' of…

Will well-intentioned idealism end what has been a relatively golden period for Bengaluru's lakes? The rapid unplanned "development" on the then outskirts of the city in the early 2000s was destroying water bodies that had existed for hundreds of years. But thanks to a reasonably good partnership between Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and different citizen-led groups, the last 10 years saw the revival of many of Bengaluru's lakes. Citizen participation in lake maintenance In the summer of 2011, BBMP, the custodian of most of Bengaluru's lakes, decided to hand over maintenance of 13 lakes to non-governmental entities through Memorandums…

Citizen activism and public pressure forced BBMP, Bengaluru's city government to start convening ward committee meetings in 2018. Citizens and officials have since been making efforts to keep the committees functional and effective. But issues like representation and ensuring regular and effective ward committee meetings need urgent attention. There is the additional issue of the absence of elected municipal corporators since September 2020, since they have to chair their respective ward committees Ward committees are presently functioning informally. Srinivas Alavilli, Head - Civic Participation, Janaagraha, says a system has been put in place for the proper functioning of ward committees.…

BBMP has spent over 100 crores on fixing, remodelling, and maintaining drains in just one ward - HSR Layout. Their Stormwater Drain Department does not maintain records like work registers or the progress reports of works. BBMP has been indicted for ineffective and inefficient collection of waste, non-compliance with waste management rules, and lack of scientific processing facilities at landfill sites. These are just three instances of impropriety and poor performance in local government bodies.All these are issues that citizens should demand accountability from their elected reps and officials. One easy way to be aware of such issues is to…

How has Bengaluru city's sweeping transformation over the last 30 years impacted its street-based sex workers? Bengaluru, which has no specific red light area, has hosted a vast landscape for street-based sex work – a category of informal labour that is not strictly illegal, but is considered undesirable and in urgent need of rescue and rehabilitation. However, in the last three decades, the meaning of ‘public space’ has undergone a dramatic change in Bengaluru, alongside the definition of who ought to legitimately constitute the ‘public’ or 'desirable worker'. Consequently, an entire ecology around street-based sex work has slowly disintegrated, pushing…