City: Bengaluru

Disposing of pet poop/pet waste is one of the most sensitive issues in a neighbourhood or apartment community, and there has been an increasing pressure on pet parents to be responsible by picking up after their pet. While one of the easiest solutions to dispose of pet waste is by bagging it, imagine the amount of plastic (fossil-fuel-based or plant-based) tied with dog poop that will be sent to landfills or incinerators.  An internet search around disposing pet waste throws up multiple options:  Bag it and disposeScoop and flush itScoop and trash near plantsScoop and bury, which basically promotes composting Let's…

The first doctor to report the Omicron variant on November 18th, 2021 was Dr Angelique Coetzee, National Chairperson of South African Medical Association. “On that day, I saw seven patients with similar symptoms of myalgia, headache, fatigue who tested positive for COVID-19 with rapid tests at my consulting rooms,” Dr Coetzee said in an email interview with Citizen Matters. “Their symptoms were different from Delta and I alerted the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines of which I am a part. It took our scientists six days to announce to the world that there’s a new variant.”  Subsequently, on…

Citizens from different wards of Bengaluru were joined by those across the country to participate in Janaagraha’s #CityPolitics webinar, titled ‘MyCityMyBudget Phase 2 – Are Ward Committees using budget allocated to them’, on Saturday, January 22nd. The webinar discussed how Bengaluru’s ward committees have been utilising the budget allocated to them. Last August, BBMP set precedent by allotting Rs 60 lakh to each of its 198 ward committees. The decision was taken after over 9,000 citizens submitted inputs on how ward budgets need to be spent, in response to the #MyCityMyBudget (MCMB) campaign (jointly launched by BBMP and the NGO…

Weekend curfew lifted On Friday, after a two-hour meeting chaired by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, the government decided to lift the stay-at-home order on weekends. The decision came as the government was under pressure from the public, trade and business establishments. However all other curbs such as night curfew and 50% occupancy in restaurants, have been retained. Schools and colleges in Bengaluru Urban district, where the positivity rate among children is high, will remain closed for Classes 10, 11 and 12 (pre-university). However, if the rate of hospitalisation in the State crosses 5%, the weekend curfew would be reimposed, said…

Bengaluru is a finalist in a nationwide competition to implement and scale kid-friendly neighbourhood design over the next two years. Pilot projects formulated and implemented by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) and Bengaluru Smart City Ltd (BenSCL) aim to enhance access to transit, open spaces, maternity hospitals and anganwadis. There are ten winning cities in the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge, a national initiative to shape neighbourhoods across India that support healthy early childhood development. The challenge was launched in November 2020 by the Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), in collaboration with the Bernard van…

As Bengaluru continues to record over 25,000 COVID cases per day, how well is the city prepared to deal with the third wave? Does the city have enough hospital beds? Is BBMP able to track and support patients in home isolation? Here's a roundup. In the current wave, a smaller percentage of patients seem to need hospitalisation compared to the second wave last year. However, BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta has emphasised that the rising case count can increase the absolute numbers of people who require hospitalisation, which can lead to a shortage of beds. A BBMP press release on…

Policy making on public health issues requires data of many kinds. One such important data category is the number of birth and death registrations. For instance, the changes in birth registration allowed researchers to note the drastic drop in Karnataka’s fertility rate over the past 40 years. On the other hand, death registration has played a key role in identifying health trends in the state, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. For citizens, birth and death certificates impact everything from admission into schools to entitlements like pension and other benefits. But what are the steps for registering and receiving birth/death certificates…

Daily COVID cases cross 20,000 Health Minister K Sudhakar on Friday said COVID cases have doubled in the state every three days during the third wave, much faster than the first two waves. The test positivity rate in Bengaluru has hit 20%. On Friday, the city recorded 20,121 cases and seven deaths. In the last 15 days alone, cases have increased by 32.65% in BBMP limits.  About one lakh tests are conducted every day in the city now. Experts and clinicians put forth the possibility of both Delta and Omicron co-circulating, which would mean that not all infections would be mild.…

Last month, in December 2021, a new skywalk came up on Outer Ring Road, near New Horizon College, Kadubeesanahalli, built by Embassy Tech Park. Coming as it did, after a long period of no new skywalks being opened, it threw the spotlight on the importance of skywalks. In the recent past, BBMP has built a number of skywalks across the city under the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model, which affected the final decisions on their locations and designs. However the overhead pedestrian crossings on Outer Ring Road have become a reality, largely due to citizen activism.  The Sanjay Giri skywalk, between Akme…

Bengaluru has been steadily growing vertically with more and more highrise apartment complexes being constructed. Gardening enthusiasts lament the loss of green cover and space for growing their own flowers and vegetables. But green-thumbed residents of Ittina Anai apartment at Bellandur have shown that they can create their own paradise on their terrace. Apartment resident Aditya Rao, who is part of this terrace garden initiative, shares their story. Having grown up on a farm with lots of trees and abundant vegetable patches, apartment living was an adjustment. Whilst I craved to recreate our childhood experiences of living amongst greenery, space…