Dear Reader,

Before you move on to the news section, ponder this: 2018 is going to see elections in Karnataka – precisely 18 months away from now. Do you have any idea what the 28 MLAs you have elected did in the Karnataka assembly the last 3.5 years?

You might remember the coverage we did during the past elections – 2013 state election, 2014 Loksabha election, and 2015 BBMP election. We will of course do data-based reporting in 2018 too. But it will be possible only with your contributions – because no corporate or political party funds us. We are now managing with a shoestring budget, but to cover the election in 28 constituencies, we certainly need more hands. We are banking on you to make this possible!

We have been working on an exciting project for a few months now. What makes a city better for a citizen? What empowers a citizen? We think it is knowledge – we know you’ll agree with us! And information needs to be in public domain, so that people can see what’s happening, and act on it.

We have earlier mentioned about Open City – opencity.in (beta version), where we are sharing a lot of Bangalore data. From budgets to ward info, and more getting added every day… check it out.

• You can share any city related public data here: http://opencity.in/submission/
• Tell us what data will be useful for you in your civic work: http://opencity.in/request/
• What do you think about it? Do give us feedback about this initiative, by clicking here.

This week’s highlight

Managing one’s own sewage’ isn’t as easy as you think

Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has mandated that all apartment complexes with more than 20 units have their own STPs. Sharad Lele, Pradeep Kuttuva and Nakul Heble find many issues. Part 1 of the series: Apartments struggle with ‘manage your own sewage’ rule

Designing the city

Wider footpaths mean more space for trees, but what might happen if trees do not have enough space for their roots? Jahnavi Pai talks about TenderSURE footpaths and tree-less future.

Open Day by Bangalore Architects, River Hope’s annual event will see the city’s best known architecture firms and projects open to public on the 10th and 11th of December. Read: Bengaluru’s top architects open up for a cause.

Young minds at work

A 15-year old’s enthusiasm has led to an important local history initiative. The project ‘City Idols’ by Ashoka Youth Venture Fellow Raghav C Madhukar helps learn about the people behind Bengalur’s street and park names.

Indians often crib about the artifacts that British took away from the country to England during the British era. Our student blogger Ritvik Mandyam wonders whether Britain can afford to give them back. Read this quirky post.

Chennai mourns the passing of an icon, quietly

Glimpses from the city on a day when it bid final farewell to one of its greatest icons, as the ruling chief minister J Jayalalithaa – Amma to all – passed away : Read: Chennai mourns Amma’s death

This week’s news

• Supreme Court has refused to accord a stay on the 75-metre lake buffer zone rule mandated by National Green Tribunal.
• BBMP’s drive against land encroachment which had halted mid-way, is likely to resume this week. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, while chairing the BBMP meeting on Wednesday, directed the revenue department to depute the surveyors for BBMP’s land survey, so that the BBMP can resume encroachment eviction drive.
• Interim stay issued by the NGT on the ‘steel’ flyover in Bengaluru will be extended till December 20.
• With many traffic rule violators trying to get away from paying fine following demonetisation, the Bengaluru city traffic police have decided to accept card payments starting next week. According to an official from traffic police division, the department has sourced 100 Point of Sale (PoS) machines.
• Residents of HAL 3rd stage in Thippasandra ward are up in arms against an attempt by private parties to encroach the BBMP playground to develop a private cricket training academy. Residents recently staged a protest and filed complaints with civic authorities.
• The BBMP Commissioner has given an undertaking before the High Court that BBMP will remove all illegal advertisements/ hoardings in the city within two months starting December 5th. This was during the hearing of a petition challenging the imposition of penalty against advertisers.
• ‘MyCityMyBudget’ survey by Janaagraha to elicit public response for the upcoming BBMP budget, has seen maximum participants stressing on maintenance of road and infrastructure.

To see the weekend events happening in Bengaluru, click here.

Here’s how you can interact with your fellow citizens and our editorial team.

• Submit articles for Bengaluru and Chennai! We run both citizen journalism and professionally authored stories, commentary and posts.
• Submit any government document(s) you have that reveals some decision or data from any city in India.
• Send us a lead or alert related to Bengaluru.
• Submit events to Bengaluru Citizen Matters.
• Join the FB groups and get connected: Bengaluru Matters | Chennai Matters

Until next week,

Shree D N

Associate Editor

Citizen Matters

Subscribe to this newsletter