Blogs

  Bellandur residents had posed a series of questions to all the candidates contesting from Bangalore Central for Lok Sabha Elections 2014. This is the email response we received from AAP candidate, V. BalaKrishnan.   1.     If you get elected, what will you do, to prove to voters that you are honest and communicate to us about your work transparently? Will you commit to a monthly communication - email/website and/or public meeting?  How can we residents send you our concerns and how will you act on those concerns?   I am committed to bring transparency in allocation, deployment, usage of…

Public Letter To PC Mohan, Bangalore Central from Bellandur Forum (RWA/Residents group of Bellandur - BBMP Ward 150)     Dear Shri Mohan,   Residents of our ward had been looking forward to hearing all candidates in a large public forum - unfortunately that has not happened. However we have a few questions for you, especially as the MP who has represented us in the last 5 years.   We will share your message with the 15000+ voters represented by the RWA members in our forum. Look forward to your response.   1. Give examples of 1-2 issues you have…

Bellandur Buzz… April 9th 2014, Issue 7 This is a fortnightly newsletter shared by the citizen group bellandur-forum@googlegroups.comVisit to Rainbow Drive: RWH tourAbout 50 residents and estate managers from apartments and layouts  around Sarjapura Road took a 1 hr walk inside Rainbow Drive on Saturday morning to see how ground water recharge had been implemented there. This event was organized by BIOME Trust, MAPSAS and Rainbow Drive. The participants saw the recharge wells and interatced with Bharti and Manjunath of Rainbow Drive. They also watched a movie on how water enters borewell in small streams flowing underground. This was followed…

(First of all, apologies for posting this so late. Last week, my husband, little boy and I fell ill and we are all still in recovery mode) A couple of months ago, a former national level cricketer's father went missing in Mysore's Devaraja Market. The local police sprang into action and the gentleman was found in a couple of hours. In that time, though he had wandered some 5 km from the spot he was last seen (the market). News reports quoted the police as saying the elderly gentleman suffered from “age-related forgetfulness”. Now, I don't know if the cricketer's…

An INTACH walk took some of us to Avenue road last Saturday with Lathasshree KS, an archaeologist who unearthed for us the Avenue road of old times. We saw that morning a beautiful past that had been preserved for centuries, low-relief deities in the ground or a nandi that was partly submerged. One step at a time, we moved from the contemporary urban chaos to the ancient serene landscape of shrines, snake stones and peepul trees. The axial symmetry of Chikpete If we look at the map of the fort or Pettah area, there are two axes – the N-S…

Recently, I found that several of my older friends are unaware of their rights on Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC).So I decided to clarify about this. Here is confirmation that BMTC offers discounts of 25% to Senior Citizens. .BMTC cites 60 years, though the Hindu report cites 65 years.   The fact, however, is that most conductors do not give the Senior Citizen discount unless one is aware of one's rights and asks for it. So...keep your id cards handy, and insist on your right if you are entitled to the discount.   Here's the extract from the BMTC charter:…

A well-functioning sewage treatment plant (STP) achieves two things – (1) it handles solid and liquid waste, which otherwise would pollute the earth, and enables its recycling (2) it is a source of usable water (effluent) and fertiliser (sludge). Unfortunately, the STP at Yelahanka New Town 5th Phase, achieves neither. Built by the BWSSB about 10 years ago, spread across 5 acres of land, the STP was supposed to treat about 3MLD. The treated water was to be let into Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake. However, despite huge investment, the STP has never been operated to treat sewage. Instead, the "Waste Water…

The linking of a waste-water treatment plant, a wetland and lake ecosystem could be one method of keeping our lakes full and recharging our aquifers. Jakkur Lake in north Bangalore is one such live example. Steps that have been taken for its revival have seen positive results, which have been documented in Aajwanthi's thesis "Towards a water sensitive city: The story of Jakkur Lake" here. BIOME has planned a visit to Jakkur Lake. Date: Sunday, 6th April 2014Time: 9.00 a.m. Meeting point: Gate of the Jakkur Wastewater Treatment Plant (http://wikimapia.org/4129931/Jakkur-Lake-Paradise-for-Birds )  The tour includes- the waste-water treatment plant- the wetland - the lake-…

Here is a short video Abhisheka Gopal and a few of her friends made, about the Malleswaram Central Library:     Do send feedback to abhishekagopal@gmail.com

The fire that raged through the lake on the 16th of March almost killed our spirit. By burning several of our trees, it had made a mockery of our effort to increase the green cover in the area. The sun's heat, rapidly evaporating the water in the lake, sapped our enthusiasm as well. Whatever little water was present was getting covered with the Salvinia Molesta. Our many efforts to mobilize skilled labour to remove the Salvinia were making no headway. Attempts to get more residents to strengthen our effort drew a blank as well and only our regular volunteers attended our recent…