BBMP

BBMP taxation committee chairman Shivaraju addressing media. Pic: Shree D N Bruhat Bengaluru Maha Nagara Palike (BBMP) has started pre-budget consultations with various sections of society including nongovernmental organisations, resident welfare associations and journalists. The consultation with journalists was done in Malleshwaram on March 16, 2016. Chairman of Standing Committee on Taxation, M Shivaraju chaired the meeting. He said journalists had their eyes and ears on the ground and knew what was wrong where, hence capable of advising based on ground realities. Many journalists from electronic and print media were present in the meeting. The inputs given by the journalists…

In order to scientifically process Bangalore city’s municipal solid waste (MSW), the State Government has set up seven compost plants, which are large facilities with required machinery and construction. Kannahalli is the largest one (can handle 500 tonnes per day), located in the outskirts of the city. One of India’s major companies in waste management, IL&FS Environment, is undertaking the operation and maintenance of this plant. There were issues with the composting facility, as the villagers near the plant complained of bad odour and other problems, and stopped garbage lorries from entering the facility for a few days. A notice…

Bengaluru's street vendors, under the banner of the Bruhat Bengaluru Beedhi Vyaapaari Sanghatanegala Okkuta (Federation of Street Vendor Unions of Bangalore), had organised a protest on March 10th 2016 at the BBMP Head Office. Street vendors protest at the BBMP premises. Pic: Beedi Vyaapari Okkuta Soon after, the protest began, the BBMP Mayor, Manjunath Reddy, promised to meet with members of the Federation after the Council Sessions were done.  Demands of the protesters 1) A joint meeting should be convened with the Mayor, Commissioner and respective coporators, comprising Kaverinagar, Koramangala, Shivajinagar and Jayanagar 9th Block street vendors. 2) 1% funds…

It has been five and a half months since the third time corporator from Congress, B N Manjunath Reddy took charge as the Mayor of Bengaluru. With BBMP budget round the corner and news of property tax hike after seven years making the rounds, the Mayor speaks about some of the issues in BBMP and clears his stand on certain things, in an exclusive interview with Citizen Matters amid his busy schedule. Just six months are left for your term to end. So what is that one thing that you would like to be remembered for as a Mayor of…

Janaagraha’s Participatory Budgeting campaign in Bengaluru, called MyCityMyBudget, was launched on November 23, 2015. Over more than two months of hectic online and on-ground activity, the campaign reached out to various sections of the city’s citizenry to facilitate their identification of inputs to the forthcoming BBMP Budget. Citizens were asked to give inputs pertaining to their respective wards and neighborhoods. The campaign is now poised to move to the next phase of submitting the inputs received to the elected representatives and the relevant agencies. Sapna Karim, Co-ordinator, Civic Participation, Janaagraha, says: "Our team has complied the inputs and shared a…

T N Seetaram is a well-known name in Kannada literary circles, and popular for his TV soap operas that had progressive outlook and strong women characters. He recollects a time in Bangalore’s history, when there was no traffic and chaos, and there was no BDA too. BDA was formed on January 6, 1976 - exactly 40 years ago. In the seventies, I was living in my friend's house, as a tenant, in Swimming Pool Extension near Malleshwaram. The owner of the house, the father of my friend Krishnamurthy, never used to collect rent from me, more because of his affection…

Mahesh (name changed), a resident of Malleshwaram in Bengaluru, has been watching many cables hanging on a tree near his house, some of them looking as if they are cut. Fed up of seeing them everyday without being able to understand why they exist, Mahesh decided to check the cut cable. To his surprise, the cable was cut at the other end too, and came off easily when he pulled it. People do not want to touch the hanging cables, because they think it could be electric cable and hence dangerous. As nobody checks them, unused cables laid by cable…

  Bengaluru this week February 19th 2016     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     The important story of the week - on how there are no rules or regulations for water tankers that most apartments, especially those outside the core city area, are dependent on. Nobody monitors whether the water tankers are safe enough. What water are we drinking? Some good news after that shocker – plastic ban trending across the city. Koramangala, HSR Layout, Sanjay Nagar - who is next? We track the various citizen-led single-use plastic bans. And The Green Ogre…

Pic: Ganga Madappa Only one pet dog per flat, every dog to have a collar, badge and microchip, clean up after your pet. Rottweilers, Pit Bulls and other aggressive breeds to be muzzled in public places. These and some more new rules are part of BBMP's draft by-laws for pet dog licensing that Urban Development Department is expected to approve soon. All these years, there were no rules governing pet dogs in Bengaluru, while other cities like New Delhi, Chennai or Chandigarh have had rules that require pet dogs to be registered for many years now. However, Section 344 of Karnataka…

If the dogs of Whitefield could talk, they would have quite a story to tell. Every night, over a hundred dogs in the area lie in wait to be served dinner. Rice, chicken bones, mutton fat and turmeric, sometimes vegetables - all cooked together to make a delectable meal. Perhaps with the addition of a few spices, dinner could actually pass off as biryani, ready to be served to humans too. And it doesn't stop at food alone. An injured dog can expect to be nursed back to health. Unspayed ones are neutered and set back on the streets. What’s…