EDITORS' PICK

As the evening sun creates an orange hue over the shimmering waters of Pulicat Lake, the fishermen get ready to launch their wooden kattumarams (catamarans) for the boat race. The participants, sitting in the middle of their boats and rowing furiously, plunge ahead amidst the cheering of villagers, who have dropped by to witness the event. At least for a day, the fishing community and others, whose livelihoods depend on the marine ecosystem of the lake and sea, forget their troubles and have a good time. The boat race is a sort of affirmation by the village community around the…

The BBMP budget 2024-25 seems to be full of measures that are contradictory, which also undermine the rule of law. It hopes to garner Rs. 1,000 crore by permitting additional floors on high-rises as ‘premium floor-area ratio (FAR)’, over and above what is permitted by law.  At the same time, the budget has reduced the penalty on property tax defaulters by which it will lose about Rs. 2,700 crore!  Both these measures modify existing laws in an arbitrary manner, conveying the impression that laws may exist on paper but can be allowed to be bypassed at the whims of the…

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has proposed building a four-lane elevated expressway through the Bannerghatta National Park, the only protected area within Bengaluru Urban district. The NHAI is working on a 280 km long expressway called the Bengaluru Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR). The road, which is part of the Bharat Mala Pariyojna scheme, will connect towns like Hosur in Tamil Nadu to satellite towns around Bengaluru, like Anekal, Sarjapura and Doddaballapura. Read more: Why a shrinking Bannerghatta forest should worry Bengalureans NHAI claims that the expressway will divert all commercial traffic, like trucks, that currently pass through…

Over the years, the Kharghar Hills in Navi Mumbai, have seen many forest fires. According to the Kharghar Fire Station records, between 1st January 2022 and 11th September 2023, totally 164 calls were received relating to fire. Forest fires usually occur after the monsoon season, once the grass starts drying up. Interestingly, Navi Mumbai and the areas nearby are less likely to be affected by natural forest fires, as the temperature in the area does not increase too much.   Many of these fires are man-made, as are 90% of all forest fires. In Kharghar, the hills are characterised by…

Apartments in Bengaluru, especially in the peripheral areas such as Mahadevapura and Bengaluru North, which are dependent on groundwater or tanker water, are being compelled to take some drastic measures of water rationing. But even amidst these dire situations. there are implementable solutions. Here is an example of an apartment that took strong measures to conserve water, despite being serviced by BWSSB: Floriana Estates Apartment, a 19-year-old building in Koramangala, recognised the importance of water conservation as a social responsibility and for sustainability. The Managing Committee (MC) of Floriana Estates took several initiatives, including raising awareness, addressing water wastage, fixing…

Two major announcements were made in February 2024: Karnataka Assembly passed the BBMP Amendment Bill 2024. Bengaluru development/Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on X (twitter) hailed it as a taxpayer-friendly Bill. The amendment was projected to benefit around 13-15 lakh people in Bengaluru, including 5.51 lakh taxpayers, by reducing the penalty on property tax arrears by 50%. This was followed, on February 20th, by BBMP’s draft notification proposing a new property tax calculation structure in Bengaluru. The new structure, based on Guidance Value (GV), is expected to begin during the next financial year, starting April 1st. Tax computation Municipalities in…

On February 1st, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the final (Interim) budget from the current government that will seek an electoral mandate in a few weeks from now. The minister’s speech had only two major announcements on urban public transport: one, that e-buses would be encouraged, and two, that Metro Rail and NaMo Bharat trains would be further supported in large cities. This followed the same pattern of allocation for transport that the union government has made over the five years of its current term. Indian cities have been grappling to contain heavy traffic and emissions from the large…

When Jitendra Dixit, a journalist and author, who lives in Wadala, went by the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) or Atal Setu, he found that it barely saved him 5-10 minutes from Mumbai to Pune in spite of paying a toll of Rs 250.   The MTHL, which connects Navi Mumbai and south Mumbai, was inaugurated with great fanfare on January 12th 2024. But the toll fee seems to have put off a lot of people, because in its first month till February 13th 2024, only 8,13,774 commuters had used it. It collected revenue of Rs 1, 39, 585,310 with a…

Getting up early in the morning and picking up the Aavin milk packets delivered to our doorsteps or queuing up at milk booths are vignettes from everyday life that most long-time residents of Chennai have grown up with. But of late, the exercise of getting a regular supply of milk from the State-owned milk co-operative is riddled with obstacles. Many residents have been facing problems in renewing their monthly milk card subscriptions online.  People who are well-versed in using smartphones and other digital devices may not have any major issues in renewing their cards online. But it is not the…

When the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link or Atal Setu was nearing completion, the most discussed issue about the project was not about it being an engineering marvel, but what the toll charges were likely to be. Whether it is the Mumbai-Pune Expressway or the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, when a project that improves the road connectivity for people, invariably tolls are charged - sometimes to recover project costs and later for maintenance. As more and more projects get unveiled, commuters feel frustrated about various toll charges they pay to use the roads that may ease and facilitate their travel, but escalate…