CITIZEN JOURNALISM

" City - A city is a large human settlement. Cities generally have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use, and communication. Their density facilitates interaction between people, government organizations and businesses, sometimes benefiting different parties in the process." (vocabulary.com) Bengaluru has many things to cherish - its beautiful climate, cosmopolitan atmosphere, major IT companies, gardens, lakes and more.  But this article is about another side of Bengaluru, or rather, the real side of Bengaluru. The Bengaluru that has poor traffic management, unplanned layouts, and roads where two cars cannot go at a time. Panathur road exemplifies this side of…

It all started when a Facebook user Sandhya was browsing multiple online gifting sites for Rakshabandhan this year, and came across a website that sold ‘combo’ gift items for siblings. All that was fine, of course, except that there were some products designed and marketed in a way that specifically addressed one of the siblings as an adopted child, and in a manner that many found to be derogatory.  At a time when the concept of adoption is still not very well accepted in our society, the last thing we need is people making fun of an issue that has…

In Part 1 of this series, I narrated how our citizen group surveyed 439 streetlights in Vasanth Nagar this June-July, and identified defective and missing lights. Using our data, we convinced BBMP to take action. BBMP has already fixed nearly half the defective streetlights here, and is expected to complete the rest in another fortnight. Given the condition of streetlights in many parts of Bengaluru, you may want to replicate the survey in your neighbourhood too. During the survey, you can map streetlights either on a Google Map online, or list the details manually in an Excel sheet. I prefer…

It was in April 2018  that a bunch of enthusiasts banded together to make an increasingly chaotic Adyar, a more livable place. This led to a programme called 'Azhagiya Adyar' conducted last year at the KNRA Hall in collaboration with the Namma Ooru Foundation (NOF). The event was a big success and it encouraged the bunch to take the movement to higher levels.  It was around the same time that the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) announced plans to implement source segregation of waste, door-to-door collection and proper disposal by GCC of such segregated waste through composting, bio-methanation, recycling etc. We sensed…

Recent incidents of chain snatching as well as petty theft in our Vasanth Nagar neighbourhood made us realise we needed to do something. There were many dark spots due to the lack of uniform streetlighting -  random gaps between adjacent streetlights, and tree branches covering the light. So, Citizens for Citizens (C4C), a self-help citizens’ forum, decided to carry out a ‘streetlight survey’ in Vasanth Nagar. How are street lights maintained? BBMP has ward-wise contractors to maintain streetlights. If the contractors come to know of a defective streetlight, they may do repairs, but this system is unreliable. BBMP can also…

This July, the BWSSB (Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board) had warned that Cauvery water supply to the city would stop by September. Rainfall was extremely low, and water levels in the Cauvery reservoirs had plummeted. But come August, the scenario turned around completely. The two-and-half months of monsoon this year has been strange. In July end, while compiling the storage levels across all four Cauvery reservoirs in Karnataka - Harangi, Kabini, Hemavathi and KRS - I found that we were staring at the lowest water levels this decade! As the KSNDMC (Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre) does not…

The residents of Adarsh Palm Retreat and surrounding areas in Bellandur are staging a peaceful protest and forming a human chain on August 20th to highlight traffic congestion and pollution in and around their community. This is not the first time that the residents are staging a protest to highlight the pressing issues that have been neglected for long. From time to time the residents have gathered to demand for a livable Bellandur.  Traffic woes have plagued the residents of Bellandur ever since office buildings have taken over and surrounded them, hindering their access to the Outer Ring Road (ORR). It…

Last week the consultants tasked with preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the BRTS invited us to a meeting. A few of us from FOMRRA (Federation of OMR Resident Associations), representing citizens living and using OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road), went to the meeting. The show started with some short films on the "successfully implemented projects" in Pune, Amdavad, Hubli-Dharwad and others. As the consultation started more than an hour late, they breezed through a PowerPoint presentation. However, we, who follow the mass transit planning and development studies associated with OMR, found that most of the data presented was based…

A well-known architect and town planner recently commented on a WhatsApp group that the whole of Bengaluru had become one construction site - with Koramangala being the epicentre - resulting in the city's livability index being at its lowest ever. If you live in Koramangala, it is hard to not notice all the development projects that are going on. You have the Ejipura - Kendriya Sadan flyover, the Maharaja Bridge, BWSSB's 6ft-diameter sewage pipeline project, BBMP's flood mitigation project, white-topping of roads all over (of course, to be dug up just days later to lay utility lines). [flexiblemap src="http://data.opencity.in/Data/Bengaluru-Koramangala-Development-projects-2019.kml" width="100%"…

"What is the budget allocated to my ward? How many roads will get relaid this year in my area? This waterbody in my ward needs to be desilted, can we add it to the works" I could rightfully ask these questions and give my suggestions for my area said Charu, Raji, Meera, Sakthi and Jothi, the members of Voice of People. But how? As we celebrated this August 15th, our 73rd Independence day, maybe it is time we got into the spirit of what independence truly is. We are continuing in this journey as passive bystanders, appalled at the quality…