GENRE: LN

The residents of Chaithanya Samarpan layout at Kadugodi, north of Whitefield, started smiling in late May when pre-monsoon showers blessed Bengaluru and then continued into June. Water stopped in a storm water drain. It gets diverted into the collection chambers through the PVC pipe shown. Pics: Rainwater Concepts. But their smiles were not just because the rain brought much-awaited respite from the heat wave of April and May. It was because earlier this year the Samarpan owners' association had initiated a massive rainwater harvesting project for the layout. A network of water trapping, filtering and harvesting structures were built underground.…

The dug footpath with tree trunks at the Sunkadakatte main road leaves no space for pedestrians. Pic: Bosky Khanna For Bhavya K, a resident of Sunkadakatte, Magadi Road, travelling on a mere 2-km stretch till Sumanahalli flyover takes around 45 minutes. The reason: the road is dug by the civic agencies for widening and laying pipelines. This is not all - the road is also filled with potholes and resembles nothing less than a death trap. She was even more shocked on Thursday, June 13, 2013, when she saw three big trees cut to the stump and logs piled up…

In 2011, the United Nations launched the Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) and urged all countries to organise programmes in the name of "UN Road Safety Week" from 6th-12th May. The theme selected for this year’s campaign is "pedestrian safety" with the aim of creating awareness around the world for the safety of youth on the road. It is dedicated to the memory of Zenani Mandela, the great granddaughter of Winnie Madzikela and Nelson Mandela who was killed in a road accident on 11th June 2010. This campaign aims to spread awareness on pedestrian rights and safety which…

As always, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has come under fire this time too, from Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of India. One of the reasons is the incomplete underpass at the C N Rao Circle in Bangalore, which was to be completed by March 2009. Even after five years and escalated project costs, the underpass is yet to be completed. RELATEDCAG's indictment of HDK and Yeddy is gory in detail It is difficult not to notice the underpass construction at the C N Rao Circle near prestigious Indian Institute of Science. The work that was supposed to be completed five…

BESCOM MD,Manivannan P engaged the audience with game that illustrated the functioning of the government, private sector and how government should work. Pic courtesy: The Alternative The residents of various apartments in Bangalore assembled in The Energy and Resource Institute campus in Domlur on Saturday, 15 June 2013, at a campaign for self-sufficient apartment communities, initiated by Apartment Adda and The Alternative. Experts and intellectuals from various arenas were also present to discuss various obstacles faced by the bulk waste generators, specifically apartments. Recently, There has been buzz in the city apartments about sustainable consumption of water and energy and…

On 11 June 2013, Suvarna News 24X7 and TV9 news had reported that the Mayor, Venkatesh Murthy, asked for the concessionaire agreement between the Maverick Holdings and the BBMP, related to Ejipura Economically Weaker Sections Quarters. However, chief engineer Rangaraju, who took over from erstwhile chief engineer B T Ramesh, said that the file was missing. Citizen Matters' effort to try to know why the Mayor wanted the files did not receive any reply, as the Mayor asked us to talk to the BBMP Commissioner. The Commissioner, Lakshminarayan, remained unavailable over phone for any clarifications. But here is the ‘missing’…

A library is a place where a child learns on his/her own and grows. But most government run schools and other low income institutions in the country lack a library, thereby denying children an essential part of education. Pratham Books, a Bangalore based non-profit trust, that has been publishing low cost yet high quality story books for children in multiple Indian languages since 2004, hopes to make the magical world of a library a little more accessible to children. For this, it invites applications from NGOs interested in receiving a unique product called 'Library-in-a-classroom'. The 'Library-in-a-classroom' is a wall-mounted library…

KCDC will manage one lakh tons of accumulated (old) waste along with the additional waste after the arrival of the new processing units. Pic: Nikita Malusare Earlier this year, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike tried to send vegetable waste from markets across Bengaluru, to goshalas (dairies). The intention was good, but  goshalas refused this waste. The reasons being many, such as the bad quality of waste and the problem with logistics, BBMP could not convince goshalas to accept this waste. This was when the long-forgotten Karnataka Compost Development Corporation came into picture. The BBMP diverted the vegetable waste from markets…

H S Doreswamy inaugurating the event. Ministers Ramalinga Reddy and Dinesh Gundu Rao too are seen. Pic: Kedar Nadella Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) which spearheaded the campaign ‘Govern Right, Govern Responsibly’ presented the citizen’s manifesto to the newly elected 28 MLAs on 7th June 2013, at the Town hall. This manifesto/charter gives voice to the woes of Bengaluru’s citizens and also outlines their demands and suggestions about what should be done for the betterment of the city.   The charter was formed after days of discussions and deliberations with more than 300 Residents Welfare Associations and various citizen groups who…

The precious ground water, which is utilised for washing utensils, clothes, bathing and ablution purposes in each household, finally ends up as sewage inside Bengaluru’s sewerage lines. With the risk of acute water shortage at our doorstep, can we afford to waste so much water? How much of this water can be reused? Are there ways to reduce and redirect our waste water for better purposes? Plants such as Papaya grown using human waste compost Pic: Kedar Nadella Ecological Sanitation, or Eco-San, is a relatively new philosophy that refers to low and high tech processes of an economically sustainable waste…