City: Bengaluru

Basamma thinks her children's school should not have promoted them this year. A resident of Chinnapanahalli near Whitefield, Basamma, who makes a living by doing domestic work, sends her daughter and son to the nearby government school. The school had no online classes at all. Yet, her daughter is now in 7th standard and her son in the 8th. "They only watched lessons on DD Chandana channel (on TV) and spent most of their time idling and playing. They learnt nothing," Basamma says. Before COVID struck last year, Basamma used to send them to tuition classes. But that stopped with…

Mallathahalli Lake has been in the news the past week, but for all the wrong reasons. There are plans set in motion to “develop” the lake, converting it into nothing short of an amusement park, with the main waterbody forming a sorry backdrop. Despite clear guidelines from the courts and the NGT on how to work around lakes, there are plans to build structures inside the lake. I live close to this lake and regularly go for walks by the lake. Life in and around the lake has always been in profusion, slowing me down on these walks. So it…

Scenario 1: It’s Friday night, and Kiran decides to order some burger, fries, and a bottle of soft drink to go with it. He finishes drinking the beverage and puts the bottle in the recycle bag, with all his other dry waste, and places the bag out, on the day BBMP workers pick up recyclables. Scenario 2: Anita is hosting a birthday party, and she orders soft drinks, along with other snacks and beverages.. Post the party all the bottles go into the recycle bag that is placed outside her apartment door. Scenario 3: Jayamma, is a pourakarmika, in Ward…

Revised guidelines Markets and commercial centres face some restrictions as the festival season kicked off with Varamahalakshmi and Muharram on August 20th. Shops, restaurants and mall owners have to ensure that their employees are vaccinated at least once and customers wear masks and maintain social distancing. Shop owners failing to enforce these rules face a fine or closure of their establishments. The Chief Commissioner has said 50 teams of marshals, home guards and police will patrol the city to enforece COVID appropriate behaviour rules based and punish people violating COVID norms. Travellers from Kerala or Maharashtra are required to show…

Petrol and diesel prices in Bengaluru stand at Rs 105 and Rs 95 respectively. The increasing prices have hit the transport expenses of lower and middle-income Bengalureans. Looking for lower operating costs, they are increasingly choosing electric vehicles (EV). As the adoption of e-vehicles increases, so does the need for infrastructure to support it. An internal survey by Bangalore Apartment Federation predicts a 5-6% increase in EV adoption amongst its members. This, in turn, necessitates Apartment Associations to anticipate, plan and expand the charging infrastructure to accommodate increasing numbers of e-vehicles amongst their residents. Apartments are setting up community charging…

India’s urban population went up from 17.9% in 1960 to 34.9% in 2020. Bengaluru’s population in the same time period increased more than 10 times. The city’s urbanisation has led to Bengaluru's Land Surface Temperature (LST) increasing from 33.08℃ in 1992 to 41℃ in 2017 -- a whopping 24% increase! Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur have analysed Bengaluru’s urban expansion and how it affected surface temperatures. The study titled Analyzing and Predicting Urban Expansion and Its Effects on Surface Temperature for Two Indian Megacities: Bengaluru and Chennai also predicts the city’s urban area in 2025. Key findings…

Driving to my neighbourhood in the periphery of Bengaluru is like maneuvering a lunar module on the moonscape. Walking or biking is almost impossible. Every year, the gram panchayat ‘repairs’ the roads, thanks to years of advocacy from residents. And every monsoon, the road washes away. To my solution-oriented mind, the answer is really simple: study the problem - the history of the road and area; socio-cultural conditions of the neighbourhood, villages, and industries on the road; the number of cars/ buses/ people using the road; environment and climate-related aspects such as soil, drainage patterns, etc. Then, it is about…

Bengaluru children test COVID positive The first 10 days of August saw 499 children in Bengaluru testing positive for COVID. A health bulletin reported that 88 children between 0 to 9 years and 305 children between 10 to 19 years tested positive. The number might shoot up to more than three times in the next few weeks, said sources in the health department. They have also advised parents to vaccinate themselves and to keep children away from crowded places. However, BBMP officials denied there was a steep rise in fresh cases among children. They said most children who tested positive…

Last October, around 700 houses in Bengaluru were damaged after heavy rains and flooding. The saga continues this year - 70 houses were flooded on June 4, and more on July 5. For hundreds of low-income families in Bengaluru, heavy rainfall in the last few years have meant intense damage or even losing their home. Flooding can also lead to the inflow of sewage into slums, which further increases the risk of water-borne and vector-borne diseases. Flooded roads and underpasses don't just choke traffic for hours, but they also increase the likelihood of accidents. Flooding has also been leading to…

The cash strapped Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been on a quest to improve its system, which will enable it to widen its property tax net. BBMP was one of the first municipal corporations in the country to embrace technology and implement an online Self Assessment Tax system. Whilst the effort has been in the right direction, it is however, constantly in the news, quite often for the wrong reasons. Now, even as it manages the brickbats and high praise, especially for its COVID management, BBMP has thrown a shocker to the public - a Property Tax Demand Notice…