EDITORS' PICK

BBMP's ongoing project on Saul Kere, a lake off Sarjapur Road, is apparently meant to address flooding issues in the neighbourhood. But its implementation – desilting, pathway, waterbody fencing – started without any public consultation -- indicates this could negatively affect the lake.  Saul Kere, part of a chain of lakes that drains into Bellandur Lake, is one of the richest biodiversity areas in urban Bengaluru. With its shallow-water areas, well-vegetated swamps, reed-beds, and woodlands in addition to the main water body, Saul Kere offers diverse habitats for birds, providing food and roosting sites for resident and migratory species alike.…

It is a Sunday morning in December and I am at the entrance of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), a protected forest located within the limits of Mumbai city. There are long queues of families who have turned up to enjoy the cool winter morning, stretching way beyond the entry gate of the park. While I wait for Dinesh Barap — who belongs to the Warli tribe, indigenous to the forest — I can hear people, restless with excitement, talking about the journey ahead as they move forward in the queues to deposit the entry fee for exploring the park…

Trupti and Pravin travelled from Nagpur to Mumbai a day before April 14th. Having not visited Chaityabhoomi for five years, Trupti wanted to pay her respects at the place Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was cremated before it became crowded with devotees from across the country the next day. It was his 132nd birth anniversary the next day. "We've travelled all day to get here. Please let us in," Trupti pleaded with the security guard of the sanctum sanctorum, who had closed the gate for visitors at around 10:30 pm. Twice a year, on April 14th and December 6th, which marks the…

Krishna Byre Gowda, from the Indian National Congress (INC), has been the MLA of Byatarayanapura since the constituency was formed in 2008. As part of his campaign to win the fourth term, he interacted with representatives of apartment associations in his constituency on April 9th. The MLA spoke about his achievements and answered key questions from the constituents. He also shared with Citizen Matters his plans for the next term if elected and his stance on certain important issues. The INC team and KBG, as he is popularly called, stressed multiple times on the MLA’s image as a clean and…

On February 19th, the police had registered an FIR against 70 citizens, who took part in a silent march protesting the proposed Sankey road flyover. The protestors were accused of committing various crimes, including unlawful assembly, wrongful restraint, obstruction to any person in any public place. All of which are offenses punishable under the Indian Penal Code. This came to light only when notices were issued in the first weeek of April to those who had participated in the protest. Some weeks later, in Yelahanka, another Bengaluru neighbourhood, several farmers who had been protesting the inadequate compensation provided by the…

"Do you have your eyes on the road or not? Can't you see there are vehicles coming?", yelled a motorcycle rider at a few pedestrians waiting to cross the Rajiv Gandhi IT Expressway on foot. He did so as he sped past the Tidel Park signal, swerving left, on his way to East Coast Road. He missed colliding with the pedestrians by some inches. A recent study on accidents involving pedestrians in Chennai raised some alarming facts about exactly how unsafe the city is for those who navigate it on foot. The study was conducted by Karthikeyan Baskar, a Chennai-based…

Be it Fashion Street, Linking Road, Colaba Causeway or the buzzing Khau Gallis offering a variety of delicacies in various localities, Mumbai is known by its lively street markets run by hawkers. They have a distinct character that attracts shoppers from Mumbai and outside, and have even become a tourist attraction.  The book shops on pavements around Flora Fountain, which were an enduring source of knowledge, now invoke nostalgic memories for generations of book lovers. Similarly, Chor Bazaar is a source of art installations and furniture for art connoisseurs and collectors. Several useful services from typists to affidavit papers to…

Indian National Congress' Dinesh Gundu Rao and the incumbent Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Gandhinagar met with apartment owners in Gandhinagar on April 8th to listen to their grievances. He promised to devise solutions for the same. The former state Minister of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, has won from Gandhinagar five times in a row. He had called out the ruling party for the crumbling infrastructure in the city and criticised the inaction over pothole-ridden roads. He holds a B.E. in Electronics and Communications from BMS College of Engineering.…

The allegations of multiple instances of sexual harassment and abuse in Chennai's famed Kalakshetra highlights the need to look into mechanisms in place at educational institutions in Chennai to aid survivors and prevent the recurrence of such incidents. At present, the University Grants Commission (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of sexual harassment of women employees and Students in higher educational institutions) Regulations, 2015. mandate every educational institution to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to deal with the cases of sexual harassment of all women inside the campus. Unfortunately, many colleges in Chennai do not have a functioning ICC or take…

When I thought of writing this article my intention was to cover the 100 Feet Road Indiranagar, Inner Ring Road (IRR), and 100 Feet Road Koramangala from end to end, starting from Binnamangala and ending in Madiwala. I planned to cover the whole distance to write about citizens' worries in traversing this road. When I went on the ground to find more details, I didn’t go beyond 100 feet road Indiranagar. There was so much content in the first 2.7 kilometres itself that it was needless to go beyond! The white topping work on the 100 feet road started about…