CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Fifteen trafficked bonded labourers including four child bonded labourers, aged between five and eight, were rescued on May 11th 2016 by the Bangalore Urban District Administration and local Police assisted by International Justice Mission (IJM) from a brick kiln in Anekal, Bangalore Urban District. The victims belonging to five families were held in bondage at the kiln for three to seven years. Three infants were also rescued taking the total number of victims to 18. The victims rescued from the brick kiln in Anekal. Pic: IJM The supervisor of the brick kiln was arrested from the kiln and he has…

As I drive past the roads of Bengaluru, all I see is huge hoardings of various developers and builders with beautiful pictures of residential and commercial complexes, wooing buyers of all types! Gone are the days when cinema ads dorned our roadsides. What hurts me most is the fancy names that these builders give to their projects, which come up on the grave of thousands of fruit-yielding trees or fertile fields-Green Orchards, Gardenia, Trees, Shrubs, Riverside, Lakeview and what not! Housing is important and it is but natural for every human being to look for a shelter. But this latest…

NICE road has been a boon for South Bengalureans, in achieiving connectivity from Tumkur Road to Hosur Road, especially for the trucks coming from Tumkuru side all the way from Maharashtra and going towards Tamilnadu. This also helps commute within Bengaluru such as from Kengeri to Electronic City, Banashankari to Electronic City etc. However it has been a death trap due to the enormous number of accidents. This road is not being treated as a highway but as a race track! 100 kmph is the minimum speed maintained on this road by cars. The parking lane on the extreme left…

The Metro is a convenient mode of transportation. But, once an individual gets off the metro, he/she needs to figure how to complete the last leg of the commute. Getting an auto can be a hassle and walking might also not be convenient. Instead, what if they could cover the rest of the distance on their own bicycle? While that sounds like a great idea, think about this: Are cycles even allowed on the metro? BMRCL only allows foldable cycles that fit through the baggage scanner. So, a majority of cyclists cannot take their cycles on the metro. Cycling enthusiasts…

File picture of a slum near HSR Layout. Pic: Akshatha M International Symposium on Health in Slums 2016 was held in Smrithi Auditorium, Bangalore Baptist Hospital, Hebbal on April 30, 2016. This was a first-of-its-kind event provided a platform for health researchers, BBMP Medical Officer and NGOs involved in various aspect of health in slums. The population for study involved migrant and non-migrant populations. This was an opportunity to connect the investigators, with questions pertaining to the health and wellbeing of the slum dwellers, with those willing to offer solutions in the form cost-effective options of fuel, energy, technology and…

The Takshashila Institution, on May 3rd, launched India’s first post-graduate programme in public policy for working professionals. The 48-week programme is delivered using Takshashila’s networked learning platform that allows people from any academic background to take the course from anywhere at their own pace. Students will learn and interact with some of the foremost policy thinkers, analysts and practitioners and be eligible for careers with top industry, NGO, politician and media partners. The course starts in September 2016 and admissions open in the first week of May. Nandan Nilekani with the students and staff of the Graduate Certificate in Public…

Antony Das, is an active participant of the B.PAC Civic Leadership Incubator Program (B.CLIP) and also an advocate of civic issues. Das went on to take up numerous initiatives in his locality, specifically reviving a public park which was turned into a dump yard for several years. The initiative has seen some substantial progress after it was pushed forward to the local BBMP members by him. Originally a project of the BDA, in 2001, the park was transferred to the City Municipal Council (CMC) and later to BBMP. However, the space allotted for the park was not maintained and it turned into a…

This is a story that has passion, action, drama, blood (well, not blood really, but it seems like people are baying for our blood), sweat and tears! Sounds like a Bollywood potboiler? Well, that’s the Durga alarm story for you. It is nothing short of a potboiler, with multitudes of characters, plots, sub-plots and plenty of action. The humble beginnings of the Durga alarm The story quite literally started in 2014, when the first thoughts took shape and it developed, slowly and painstakingly over unlimited cups of tea and brain-storming sessions. Almost 90% of the women who attended our workshops…

A number of articles have been written about step-by-step approach to fill the Online Form for payment of property tax this year. I am writing this article on the failure of the new system and what went wrong since lakhs of tax payers could not make payments till date. BBMP is in a big muddle for having introduced a software overnight without proving the efficacy of the new system. I am giving below the reasons for such a failure. The matter is in the hands of the concerned BBMP Commissioners who are probably not taking into consideration, the actual state…

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has introduced new norms for nitrogen level in the treated water that comes out from a sewage treatment plant. The step is meant to control nitrogen levels in the drinking water bodies. The new standards are made applicable to all STPs including those in Residential Apartment Complexes, Commercial Complexes and the large STPs of Urban Local Bodies ( ULB) such as City Municipal Corporation, Town Municipal Corporation etc. in Karnataka. The new notification limits Ammonia Nitrogen content and Total Nitrogen content to 5 mg/L and 10 mg/L respectively in treated domestic sewage. The…