CITIZEN JOURNALISM

United Technologies Corporation on December 19th today announced the 12 winners of India’s first ever Neighbourhood Improvement Partnership Challenge (NIP), an initiative of UTC’s Citizens for the City Program. The winning projects and support teams will collectively receive a total amount of nearly Rs one crore. The 12 winners will implement projects in the areas of mobility, waste management, public safety, autonomous building, water quality and rejuvenation of public spaces. Chris Rao, VP and Country Head, UTC Aerospace Systems and Goldie Srivastava, Director - Communication, United Technologies India along with the 12 winning teams who will collectively receive a total…

Here's a small quiz: Who are the following individuals and what's common among them? Latha Krishna Rao, P B Ramamurthy, Gaurav Gupta, M S Ravishankar, Anjum Parvez, T M Vijay Bhaskar Someone who has been following public affairs in Karnataka would know that they are all IAS officers of the Karnataka cadre. But very few people are likely to know that they all held the position of Chairperson of the BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board) from 2007 to present. So that is six officers over a period of eight years, which gives an average of about 16 months…

Khata is the record maintained in the Corporation office on the ownership right of a property owner in the BBMP area. Obtaining this after a person has acquired the title to a property has become a nightmare in Bengaluru, with endless delays, pervasive corruption and official apathy. Every person who has acquired a title to property in Bengaluru by any means, usually by purchase, but also by inheritance, gift or any other method, is harassed by BBMP officials, their middlemen and agents when (s)he tries to get the khata. This document is required for all transactions relating to loan to…

Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) in association with BBMP on December 21st organised a workshop, Women Leaders for a Better Tomorrow - the imprint of women leaders in political leadership. Leading ladies of the BBMP Council. Pic: B.PAC “This is a historic moment in Bengaluru’s history”, said Revathy Ashok, CEO and Managing Trustee, B.PAC. “BBMP has more than 52% of women elected members and we thought this is the right moment to celebrate this win and to inspire our corporators with mind-blowing stories of several women political luminaries of Karnataka such as Leeladevi R Prasad and BT Lalita Nayak, she…

This true story is typical of the experience of thousands of residents of Bengaluru who are at the mercy of ‘service’ providers like the municipal corporation (BBMP) and water supply (BWSSB). In the first week of December, BBMP’s contractors began re-laying pavement stones in Jayanagar. Gangs of workers piled the dug up mud, concrete chunks, broken stone slabs and bricks all along the pavement, blocking my entrance. How do I get in and out of my home? I protested. The labourers suggested I step into the two feet deep drain and access my entrance. As a 75-year-old senior citizen with…

Since the time Chennai has been ravaged by the floods in early-December, we have been hearing stories of how Bengaluru has pulled through for the people of Chennai. This is one such story.  Over 10 lakhs raised Members of the Facebook groups Drive Without Borders and Wake Up Bengaluru came together to raise funds to support the relief work in Chennai. In less than 10 days, funds in excess of 10 lakhs were generated by members of the two groups.  We delivered the relief material in two phases. In the first phase, volunteers from the groups visited a few places…

A fortnight back I had to go to M G Road in Bengaluru for some urgent work in the middle of a week day. As anyone living in the Whitefield suburbs will testify, it can take anywhere between one to two hours to do so, maybe even more! However this is not a rant about the situation of our roads or traffic. I decided to shorten my commute time by taking the Metro from Baiyappanahalli Metro station to M G Road. Upon arriving at the Baiyappanahalli Metro station, much to my horror I found that all the parking slots were…

I answered the doorbell a few weeks ago to a blue inland letter. Selvaraj thatha, the resident guardian of my building smiled gummily at my furrowed brow as he handed it over. Late night online impulse purchases ensure a steady stream of parcels that thatha receives on my behalf, but an inland letter was a novelty and he was curious to know what had occasioned it. I gingerly eased open the letter and found that it was from my library. Among other things, the letter said that the good folks at Eloor library, Bangalore were looking forward to seeing me…

Now an annual fest at namma Turahalli forest, Turahalli Day was celebrated on December 6th 2015. The day began by around 6.30 am with people gathering under the banyan tree. Ganeshram and Anurag, who were there to go on a plant walk, were already in a ‘taxonomic’ discussion with Ravee. A few others joined them and off they went on a green path. Here's the highlight of the plant walk, in Ganeshram's words: "One of the topics that was underlying the whole walk was the importance of forests and native flora and how it affects us. The other was how knowledge…

In July 2005, when 900 mm of monsoonal rains hammered Mumbai for a 24-hour period and wreaked havoc on the city’s infrastructure and housing, political leaders in Karnataka reassured us that Bengaluru was immune to flooding given its inland location some 3,000 ft above sea-level on the Deccan Plateau. Those assurances proved foolhardy. In October that year, over half of Bengaluru’s road network was inundated and thousands of homes and commercial establishments damaged following four days of unusually strong monsoonal rainfall. Floods in Bengaluru during October 2005, in Bommanahalli area. Pic: Champaka Rajagopal Ten years later, Chennai continues to reel…