City: Bengaluru

BBMP schools to reopen primary sections BBMP schools will resume classes for grades I to V from Monday, October 25. No online classes were held for these students in the past one-and-half years; teachers only interacted with the students who accompanied their parents to collect rations from school, said an education department official. The teachers and non-teaching staff have been fully vaccinated, the official added. The 16 civic-run primary schools will be sanitised over the weekend. The strength of students in classes I to V will be ascertained once physical classes resume. Source: The Hindu Read more: The reality of…

For the past three years, Seema, a 35-year-old healthy woman has been running all outdoor errands for her family. She lives with her six-year-old son, her 42-year-old wheelchair-ridden husband, and a 70-year-old mother-in-law in a humble middle-income household. After her husband met with a road accident and lost his ability to walk, the family has been increasingly cautious about their outdoor activities.  Seema’s aged mother-in-law and disabled husband almost never leave the house unless a special van is rented. Seema always walks her son to and from the school bus, and at no time is he allowed to walk by…

With transportation identified as a major environment polluter, the move from fossil fuels to electric vehicles is seeing a major push from central and state governments. Consumers too are warming to the idea of switching to electric vehicles (EVs) for personal transport given that both petrol and diesel prices have crossed the Rs 100 per litre mark. Are we ready for this? ​ ADDA, the apartment management software platform and Citizen Matters organised an online panel discussion with different stakeholders on September 29th to look at possible solutions. The discussion focussed on how gated communities, in particular, could facilitate this…

The conditions of most roads in Bengaluru are as bad as they can possibly get. Potholes and slush have reduced the speed of all types of vehicles, increasing consumption of scarce fossil fuels like petrol, diesel etc., and also worsening atmospheric pollution. Citizens are losing patience. Fed up with the deteriorating conditions of roads, citizens have been registering/highlighting their grievances on social media via creative means. Some have even taken matters into their own hands and have started fixing roads by themselves. Yet the attitude of the executing authorities whose job it is to keep roads in good shape remains…

Houses, airport flooded The overnight rain of 18 cm between Monday night and Tuesday morning is the highest ever that the Met observatory at KIA (Kempegowda International Airport) recorded since it was set up in 2011. The roads leading to KIA were waterlogged due to the heavy rains on Monday night. Hence cabs and private vehicles were stranded, forcing some to depend on alternative modes of transport, even a tractor. BIAL (Bangalore International Airport Limited) sources said that 20 departing flights between 5.30 pm and 11.59 pm were delayed due to weather conditions. Heavy rains also flooded scores of houses…

On September 24th, Prof. Ashish Verma, Convenor, IISc Sustainable Transportation Lab (IST Lab) released a voluminous 479-page report co-authored with Hemanthini Allirani from IST Lab, recording air quality index and several other indicators of Quality of Life (QoL) due to 'pedestrianising urban streets' - essentially closing roads to traffic. This is a part of the Innovating for Clean Air (IfCA) programme, a joint initiative between India and UK to pilot air quality improvement initiatives in Bengaluru. Being the first such initiative in Karnataka, the initiative is named ‘Church Street First', based on the location of the study. Church Street was…

As the second wave of COVID has abated, Bengalureans are getting out and about. Many need transport services to go to work or for chores, but bus services by the BMTC (Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation) are yet to catch up. In fact, the services have not even gotten back to the levels of last March, just before the second wave struck.  Bus numbers and schedules lower than in March During the first COVID lockdown in March 2020, BMTC had stopped all of its services except those for frontline workers. Services started picking up gradually, especially after the first wave of…

I started commuting to work by cycle in 2011, to avoid the stress of getting stuck in traffic jams on the Outer Ring Road (ORR). Surprisingly, I found that cycling was not as hard as I imagined it to be. Slowly, my frequency of cycling increased, and while the traffic jams on ORR, Whitefield and Sarjapura Road peaked too, it hardly affected me. I was riding a 23-km round trip everyday to work, come what may! Cycling brought immense flexibility and freedom to my schedule. Now, due to COVID and the work-from-home option, the number of commuters including cyclists have…

50% fully vaccinated, over 10,000 refused jabs The BBMP crossed a milestone on October 5 by covering 50% its population with both doses of COVID vaccine. In Bengaluru Urban district, 58% have been fully vaccinated. But it is among the few districts in Karnataka to have covered half the population with both doses. Meanwhile, the BBMP learnt through a block-and-lane-level vaccination survey that about 10,000 people from 4,437 households have refused to get jabbed. They were identified from a survey of 76,373 households. Many from lower-income groups seemed to be afraid of side effects. The most number of unvaccinated households…

Many Bengalureans don't think of the city as a biodiversity hub. But school students who participated in the 'Biodiversity in my Bengaluru backyard' contest challenged this notion. The contest was organised by Citizen Matters, in collaboration with the conservation magazine Mongabay-India and the apartment management software platform ADDA. Students in grades 9-12 were invited to submit articles or photos/videos of biodiversity in their premises. The best entries were announced at a virtual event on September 18th. Read more: "To protect nature, start at home": Bittu Sahgal Best entries - 'Article' category The following students were selected for submitting the best…