DATA

Air pollution on Outer Ring Road. Pic: Mayur Channagere According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is the fifth leading cause of deaths in India, resulting in about 620,000 premature deaths. Recent studies have largely focussed on Delhi, where air pollution is estimated to cause 10,000 – 30,000 annual deaths. What we don’t know with certainty, however, is the extent to which the quality of air in Bengaluru has been compromised and its impact, given the rapid and unchecked urbanisation, dramatic loss in tree cover, rampant waste burning all over the city and rising vehicle numbers. To understand rising…

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Owing to public pressure, Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) has uploaded more details on the steel flyover, including the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the BDA's proposed steel flyover from Chalukya Circle to Hebbalon Bellary Road late on Friday night (October 14, 2016). The same information was earlier denied when Namma Bengaluru Foundation had applied for it under RTI. 3D animation for the proposed project: 2D simulation video for the proposed project: Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/Caq0Swx_46M Here is the copy of the Detailed Project Report. [embeddoc url="https://citizenmatters.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/BDA-Detailed-Project-Report.pdf" download="all"] More clarifications on the project [embeddoc url="https://citizenmatters.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Update-on-the-Elevated-Road.pdf" download="all"] List of trees to…

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This is surely a map no one wants to see. Nearly 1100 garbage dumps across different wards captured on a map, in the city of Bengaluru, by citizens - a crowdsourced attempt, point to how common and ubiquitous is the problem of garbage in public spaces. Each garbage dump has a story behind it. Some of the photos from the map: What's happening near this lake? Thermocol is a type of waste Bengaluru cannot figure how to dispose. Dumped in a no-man's land, it slowly pollutes the atmosphere and water bodies. A cow feeds on garbage full of paper and…

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We launched the crowdsourced Blackspot Mapping Project (garbage dump mapping project) in the last week of August, 2016. Two weeks into the project, we are already nearing 200 spots. As we reached out to people for help, we also faced many questions: Why are you doing this? What’s the intent? What will this data be used for? So many apps to map garbage and other issues - why should we contribute data to this project? In this article, we try to explain it all in detail. Why are you doing this? What’s the intent? Our cities suffer from multiple problems.…

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Urban Development Department published ward committee rules in June 2016. The rules will help formation of ward committees and can have citizen participation in ward level. Kathyayini Chamaraj, the co-founder of CIVIC, says that people can now start demanding that BBMP constitute the ward committees for each ward with a total of ten members with 3 women, 2 SC/ST members, 2 local associations and any three other members.Other terms: The committee must meet every month and put up the minutes and resolutions in the ward office. The Ward Committee meetings are open to the public and RWA members should make…

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They don't go to theatres to watch cinema. They can save no money with the earnings they make. They have many occupation-related health issues, yet their medical expense is just about 12,000 per annum! This is the fate of finances /revealed by a recent survey on garment workers. Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU) is an independent trade union of garment workers in Karnataka. Centre for Workers Management (CWM) is a research organisation working on issues of labour standards and labour rights in the formal and informal sector in India. Both these organisations worked together to do a study on…

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