GENRE: LN

R B Shivakumar, 36, a resident of Rajajinagar has been collecting surplus vegetarian foods from social and private functions in and around his residence for the past three years and distributing it to around 150 low income families in his locality. He employs six people to assist him. On May 22nd, Shivakumar says he distributed lunch to more than 20,000 people. The food was collected from five different kalyana mantapas located in and around Rajajinagar. And the food was distributed to slum dwellers of Gopalpura and Chamundi Nagar. Babu, one of the recipient from Chamundi Nagar says, “It is a…

At Casa Ansal apartments on Bannerghata Road, JP Nagar, we got samples of the following drinking water sources tested from a reputed water testing laboratory. Cauvery water as received from BWSSB Water from the open well near A- Block Water from the open well near D- Block Water from borewell near B- block This is what we inferred from the test results: None of the samples meet the Indian standard specifications for drinking water. The Cauvery water sample is the worst of the lot. It contains the highest MPN (Most probable number of Bacteria count) The water from the other…

Bangalore Environment Trust has come out with a position paper on the widening of 91 roads in general and six core inner city roads in particular. Bangalore Environment Trust (BET), founded in 1987, works on environment issues concerning the city. Our point is that there is a case for a relook at this 91 roads programme based on various traffic measures being taken by the government like Metro, Monorail, underpasses etc. In any case, we feel that six heritage roads with a large number of old trees must not be widened, but instead various other measures to expedite traffic must…

To the casual observer, power cuts in the city have been erratic and without warning, however, BESCOM officials say these are very much scheduled.Three months ago, on February 25th 2010, BESCOM issued a notification on when there will be power cuts for domestic, commercial and industrial feeders. This was in view of the upcoming summer season. The notification had said that there will be two hours of power cuts everyday in batches – one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. For example, power is cut off in an area between 7 and 8 am in the…

There has been a sudden interest in this whole idea - before I got to wonder why - I read somewhere that BBMP has made rain water harvesting compulsory. I am glad I was able to attend this session on Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) by A R Shivakumar, Executive Secretary and Principal Investigator – RWH, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (KSCST). This was held at Mantri Classic Hall, ST Bed on May 15th.  Around 30 people attended the session.It was a very good session and BWSSB is willing to conduct such sessions on request. All you need to…

A quick glance at your neighbourhood schools. At Indira Priyadarshini, Sindhu J C topped the SSLC with 601 for 625. 90% passed at Holy Infant. At Frank Public it is a 100% pass. At St Marks Public, 100% passed, with 20 of 30 students securing first class. Mahatma Education Society secured a 67% pass. “Its not too bad, we not only concentrate on academics but also on other curricular activities”, says Dr Seshagiri Rao K A, Principal.Coming to some ICSE 12th results, at Clarence Public, all students secured above 80% marks. At Dayananda Sagar, above 80% of the students got…

For a majority of them, it was their first ever chance to speak as people's representatives. That too on a pressing issue. As BWSSB Chairman P B Ramamurthy put it, "It was a golden opportunity. I couldn't have got so much information from anywhere else". For two days, corporators from across Bengaluru voiced their concerns over water-related problems in their wards. Demands for borewells, jetting machines, regular desilting and replacement of old pipes with new ones, were made. Complaints ranged from lack of cooperation from local BWSSB officials, to the need to hold monthly meetings with engineers. The occasional bouquet…

In the times when there is general apathy amongst citizens towards issues like lack of civic amenities, environmental degeneration, etc, Bangalore has seen a rise in the number of active Residents' Welfare Associations (RWAs) in different parts of the town.One such RWA is Uthkarsh, in LB Shastri Nagar. Their vision is to make the residents of LB Shastri Nagar proud to live in the locality. With a vision like this, the association takes up work in various areas to - influence and improve the state of the civic amenities, increase the participation of the residents in the civic administration, promote…

BBMP has installed an Organic Waste Converter (OWC) in  Malleswaram Market a couple of weeks ago as part its project to renovate the market. The market now has a system that manages all waste that is generated within the market. The OWC cost around Rs 22 lakhs. OWC can process one ton of waste every day. Pic: Vani Murthy. The OWC is a machine that processes wet organic waste by employing aerobic microbial decomposition. The organic waste is churned into a homogenised; odour free output through a bio-mechanical process. This output is left to cure in baskets for stabilisation where…

In what may perhaps rank as the first budget proposal of its kind, Citizen's Voluntary Initiative of the City (CIVIC) in association Jago  submitted a Participatory Budget Proposal of Sagayapuram (ward number 60) to B  Palaniammal, the councillor of the ward, in an event held on Friday, May 7th.The budget proposal is for the year 2010-11 The meet was held at  Alphonsus High School Hall on Davis Road from 4.30 to 6.30 pm. Jago is a seven year old coalition of Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWA’s) and Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) in Bangalore East.“This activity must be replicated in each ward…