BBMP

BBMP's proposal to begin charging people to park on the streets can seem like a long-overdue scheme. But while the principle of charging for public space seems reasonable, we should do more than that. We should set targets for what we hope to achieve by charging parking fees. One direct result will be revenues to the BBMP. Each of the 85 streets on which parking charges will be introduced should produce several lakhs in income to the municipal corporation each month. But are there other results we wish to see? And if yes, can we connect those results too to…

BBMP likes to create regular, small contracts. This system is informally known as 'hale kallu, hosa billu', and is well understood by all the stakeholders !! Take the example of shoulder drains. To begin with, it is common sense that a drain that collects rain water from the road should be built adjacent to the road and not to the property walls. But what we do is the exact opposite. Thereafter, to connect utilities like water and sewage to the properties, we run pipes across the drains, and these pipes becomes obstacles that collect various things thrown into the drain. As…

May 30th is the last date for paying your property tax in advance, if you want to avail discount. But the problems in your account have not been fixed in the BBMP portal to collect taxes, in spite of having a complete year at their (BBMP) disposal. So in all probability, you will end up paying inaccurate amount this year as well, if your account had a problem last year. The wrong calculations of last year are being carried forward this year as well. Those who paid as ‘early birds’ with highertaxes due to revision in tax as well as…

The Karnataka High Court has directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to constitute Ward Committees in Bengaluru within a month! Several earlier orders that asked the civic body to constitute the ward committees had not been conformed with. Ward committees are mandated as per Constitutional 74th Amendment (Nagarpalika) Act, 1992. The direction came as part of a petition filed by Leo Saldanha and others, that said the BBMP is in violation of repeated directions from Karnataka High Court. Leo Saldanha, sharing this news over email, points out, "What would really help now is for public-spirited persons to step up and…

At least this dug up part of Bannerghatta Road mentions that natural gas pipelines are being laid.   But in most places, roads are dug up without warning and with no information about why the surface is being broken up. Nor does the road get any re-surfacing once the digging has been covered up, resulting in bumpy, muddy paths rather than the roads that we are paying taxes for. When is the BBMP going to be accountable for the damage they cause, without reparation?

The Kengeri Satellite Town adjacent to Mysore Road is now a busy township. Kommaghatta road is one of the major roads in this area. It connects this region with Tavarakere in Magadi Road. If you go along this road, or on any of the adjoining roads, past NICE road, you will see the latest site development project of BDA called Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda Layout. Look a little deeper, and you will see that it is an environmental disaster in the making. Pic: B V Rajarama Bhat This has been a green belt providing valuable oxygen supply to the city and it is…

Bruhat Bengaluru Nagara Palike (BBMP) has its branches in every ward. They are called ward offices, and they will have the assistant engineers, junior health inspectors, work inspectors, garbage supervisors and all other important stuff related to your ward. So, you need to know where your ward office is, to get anything done from BBMP. To help everyone in Bengaluru who is searching for their ward office, Opencity.in is mapping the ward offices of all 198 offices of Bengaluru, through this form. Since the form involves collecting the location data, you might be prompted to share your location. You can…

BBMP contract workers protested in front on BBMP on Womens' Day. Even as the BBMP had organised exhibitions and other programs for Women’s day, more than a thousand women contract Powrakarmikas of Bengaluru gathered at the BBMP head office to ask the BBMP, why these working women were being denied their rights. Workers from Indiranagar, RT Nagar, Koramanagala, Hegganahalli, Kengeri, Ramamurthy nagar, Gandhinagar, Banaswadi, Yelahanka and several other areas, braved threats from contractors and participated in the protest. The Contractor of Horamavu and Rammurthynagar has even threatened to fire the workers for being part of the protest. Students, several activists…

Send it back to where it came from... after it has been thoroughly segregated and composted, of course. We’re talking about sending the biomass part of the waste a city generates back to the soil. This would ensure the recycling of nutrients, creating closed economies as is the need of the hour, and virtually trigger off a positive domino effect. It remains a fact that we are a country with a rich history of recycling, the returning of nutrients in the way that the Karnataka State Agriculture Department is proposing plays to that history. The department has proposed that the…

G Padmavathi (56), a 4th time Congress corporator from Prakash Nagar ward, took charge as the 50th Mayor of Bengaluru in September 2016. She is the seventh woman to assume the coveted post. On a Wednesday at around 3 pm, she arrives at her chamber to make herself available for visitors. She is at her office after a long day of field visits and attending events across the city. A group of residents wait in a corner to invite the Mayor for an upcoming event. Meanwhile, a batch of auto drivers arrive at her office to submit a memorandum requesting…