GENRE: LN

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered an interim stay on the mega-project coming up on the land between Bellandur and Agara lakes, in Bengaluru. This was in response to a petition filed by The Forward Foundation, Bangalore, Praja RAAG, Bangalore and Bangalore Environment Trust. The stay order issued on April 16, 2014, states that “the Tribunal is satisfied that there is a substantial question connected to and concerned with environment which has got to be enquired into.” It observes that “the construction activities are carried on in an extent of 13,50,455 m2 in an area of 80 acres in…

Low cost community leaf litter composting pilot project ready to take off in Malleshwaram. Pic: Shree D N Bangalore’s first low cost community leaf litter composting unit was inaugurated in Malleshwaram on April 24, 2014. Set in a roadside park on 8th Main Road before Yashwanthpur Circle, the project is a replication of an already-running model conceptualised by Ravi Kaushik, a resident of Malleshwaram, in his own frontyard. The project aims to compost the leaves that fall in a particular season in Bangalore. Come winter, the roads of Malleshwaram that have a good tree cover are filled with variety of…

This newsletter is shared fortnightly by the citizen group bellandur-forum@googlegroups.comVoting Day – Post mortem   The dance of democracy hasn’t ended! Election day. 17th April. Many of us went to our polling booths and did our good deed for the day, with a turnout of some 50-65% across the ward. Some of us couldn’t (thanks to voter roll mess ups) and some of us, sadly didn’t.   The Bellandur forum has been debating on this and active citizens want to understand the reasons - voter apathy is the biggest obstacle when residents associations try to get civic issues fixed - whether we…

It is everyone's dream to own a home and live in it. In rapidly urbanising Indian cities, especially Bangalore, without the right homework, chasing that dream can result in far more stress than expected. A range of documents is needed at various stages to proceed with a property deal. Regulations, rules, documents, and a maze of procedures can stump you or complicate matters if you are not well prepared. Many of us are unfamiliar with what is required until we actually face such a situation. We are also prone to commit mistakes if we do not ask the right questions…

Broken commodes decorated along the compound wall that separates Railway land from BBMP land and footpath... coconut fronds thrown casually everywhere... the parked vehicles meant for carrying the dead, a garbage pickup point which never seems to be empty... the ground attacked continuously by garbage burning and stagnant water and turned black... add to this the unbearable stench of dead and decaying animals that makes you run for life, and you know you are in the backyard of Malleshwaram — on 11th main, Railway parallel road. Unused Railway land has become a dump filled with weeds. The unkempt garbage-filled land…

File pic. Courtesy: Jayakrishnan On 21st April 2014, the Counsels of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) placed before the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court D H Waghela and Justice B V Nagarathna a compilation of tree planting activities in Bangalore. The document claims that during the years 2007-2013, the forest wing of the BBMP has planted 10,75,388 trees in the city and that on an average (across 6 years) 63.5% of the saplings have survived. The document was supplied as part of the suo moto proceedings initiated by the High Court in Writ Petition 7288/2011, responding to concerns over…

A religious procession en-route to Dharmarayaswamy Temple. Pic: Deepika Nagabhushan As a recent resident of New Thippasandra, Venkatweshwara Colony which is adjacent to the 515 colony, I had assumed that this being Bangalore, inadequacies would be dealt with swiftly. However, about 2 weeks back (April 8th 2014), when the public utility services shut down for godly processions, with power-cuts at ungodly hours, made me feel like a helpless citizen. Our colony experienced a power-cut of 5 hours during the day and yet another for a further 3 hours, from 3 am to 6 am in the morning. Not even the…

It was the big day for all Bangaloreans and considering the number of civic organisations such as BPAC, CIVIC, Namma Bengaluru Foundation, etc, the voter turnout was expected to be at an all time high. Post voting day, the voter turnout was pegged at 56.47%, 55.7% and 55.69% in Bengaluru North, Central and South constitiuencies respectively. Though this figure is almost 10% higher than the polling percentage for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it is less that the average Assembly election voting percentage in 2013 (58.27%) and the state voting average of 67.28%.  Citizens waiting at a booth in Malleshwaram at 7.30…

Chief Election Officer for Karnataka, Anil Kumar Jha in a press conference in Bengaluru on Monday reiterated the model code of conduct and presented statistics relating to the number of polling stations, vehicles mobilised for poll purpose and polling personnel, among others. Jha said there would be a ban on public meetings and processions from 15 April evening onwards. Setting up of temporary offices by party or candidate Such offices cannot be opened by way of any encroachment either on public or private property/ in any religious places or campus of such religious places/ contiguous to any educational institution /…

In the backdrop of Lok Sabha election campaigns, politicians from namma Bengaluru seem to be gearing up to see who will shine in the limelight. And with the obvious popularity that the internet and smartphones enjoy, not all our politicians need to go campaigning on feet to meet voters. All they need is a computer or a smart-phone to do the work for them. While there are still some who prefer to receive physical copies of minutes, only because they don’t know how to read emails (poor little fossils), there are others who are literally all over the place. Facebook,…