CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Bangalore city has various famous landmarks. One of these landmarks is KR Market in Bangalore city also known as City Market. KR Market is Asia’s largest flower market and also is one of the largest areas in Bangalore which sells fresh produce.   Every Mayor comes with an agenda to clean-up KR Market, yet it remains dirty. The main reason is there is no proper disposal of waste. Fruit and vegetable vendors throw rotten or reject produce onto the street or on top of existing heaps of garbage around their stalls. This garbage is then collected by pourakarmikas and is…

Bangalore Oniyavara Seva Coota, also known as BOSCO Bangalore, is an organisation established by the Salesians of Don Bosco to protect and take care of children/youth who leave their homes and land up on the streets of Bengaluru due to various reasons. During the 36 years of its existence, BOSCO rescued and rehabilitated more than a lakh and twenty thousand unaccompanied children/youth from the dangerous streets in order to protect and keep them safely. BOSCO is present 24x7 in the streets, railway platforms, bus stands, markets and slums waiting to reach the lost children/youth. BOSCO also plays an important role in…

Did you know that senior citizens are entitled to certain benefits and provisions under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007? In fact the Act also provides for childless senior citizens who can claim maintenance from their relatives if needed. There are also provisions and procedure for cancellation of documents under which property has been transferred by senior citizens to children. Unfortunately, awareness of the Act and other rights and benefits accorded to senior citizens under the Indian law remains extremely low according to a survey done by HelpAge India. One in five elders is unaware of…

A wrecked footpath with cables, garbage, posters. Pic: Nadia Asif If you are a pedestrian you would know that crossing Bengaluru’s busy, lawless roads is nothing less than a life-threatening ordeal. For motorists, pedestrians are obstacles and for the traffic police, pedestrians are insignificant road users who somehow find their way in the mayhem of vehicles coming in from all directions without any order. In a survey conducted by Walkability Asia in seven Indian cities, Bengaluru scored the lowest in walkability. It is common to see bikes using the pavements to ride past static traffic, or autos cutting corners inches…

The ‘Women Start-up Programme’ was inaugurated by NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at IIM Bangalore on January 23 (Monday), 2017. Altogether 50 aspiring women entrepreneurs from all over India have been selected for Stage 2 of the programme. NSRCEL, which is the entrepreneurship and incubation centre at IIMB, in partnership with Goldman Sachs, has initiated the Women Start-up Programme. The programme is designed to enthuse aspiring entrepreneurs-in-the-making to systematically think through their venture idea. It will equip women to develop entrepreneurial skill sets to help with the ideation stage and managerial skill sets that will help them start…

NERALU, a citizen-led tree festival, is being organised on 18th and 19th February 2017, at Natonal Gallery of Modern Arts (NGMA) and other city-wide venues. Come February, Bengaluru’s trees burst into spectacular blooms. The first of its kind in Bengaluru, Neralu, which means ‘shade’ in Kannada, is being planned to coincide with the blooming season in the city, and will bring together citizens to celebrate the garden city’s glorious natural heritage. Bound by a common love for trees, naturalists, ecologists, artists, technologists, storytellers, homemakers, photographers and many more citizens from all walks of life are working together to organise Neralu.…

We have a common psychology of living with the problem, not realising we are encountering one! So are the case of most pedestrians whose Right of Way has been infringed for various reasons. The first form of transportation was walking - from the time man was born, he has been walking. But with improvements in technology and innovations of automobiles, we do not give importance to walking any more. Now everyone has their personal vehicles. Number of these vehicles has been increasing every day! It has been reported that about 55.59 Lakh non-transport vehicles, that is cars and two-wheelers are…

Bengaluru is in the process of preparing yet another master plan. What does the process involve and what does it aim to achieve? To understand this, let us go back to the time when Kempegowda first founded our great city, Bengaluru.   Challenge: Bangalore was on a high plateau and had no water resources.   Only way it could host a city: Rain water harvesting, and lots of it. Best option to do it was through lakes, using them as water sinks. First thing on his agenda: Build many lakes, more than the population the city then had would require.…

The Real Estate Research Initiative of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB-RERI), with support from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), has launched a web-based portal - www.rajakaluve.org to enable Bangaloreans to know if their property is situated on a storm water drain or ‘raja kaluve’. Inaugurating the portal for public use, BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad, said: “This portal enables people ease of access to find details about storm water drains in one place.” Citizens need to have the survey number, village, hobli and taluk as per the schedule in the registration document to be able to use this portal.…

Bellandur is one of the largest wards in Bengaluru. Of late, it has been in news for inefficient garbage collection and burning of garbage in public places. A few months ago, a new garbage contract was awarded to Bellandur. The residents allege that the new system is unscientific and designed to fail. The monthly waste management expenditure for Bellandur ward till August 2016 was Rs 35 lakh. A new contract was awarded in September 2016 and the contract amount was revised to Rs 45 lakh per month. But the difference was not just in cost calculation. The entire system of…