GENRE: Voices

Traffic that needs to take a right turn at Windsor Manors causes roadblocks for airport traffic. Pic: Google Earth. Namma Bengaluru used to be a very beautiful city. There were beautiful circles, tree-lined avenues and lots of greenery to complement the wonderful weather. However, in the last few years a lot of the beauty has been destroyed in the name of development. First the circles were removed - owing to the misplaced notion that its better for traffic to have a four or five way intersection. Then the trees were removed - owing to the misplaced notion that widening roads…

There are several issues - short term, medium term and long term, that I see with the RedBull FlugTag event held at Sankey Tank premises in Malleshwaram, Bangalore. 1. Short term From the photographs I have seen of the aftermath, the areas around Sankey Tank appear littered with rubbish, with trash all around the lake and in the lake as well, including non-biodegradables like thermocol. The impact on the fish, birds and other lake wildlife that ingest this thermocol can only be imagined. During events like this, the noise and bright lights also add to the disturbance to urban wildlife.…

You are already composting your waste in aerobic method. As the logical next step meant to use the home-made compost, you have set up an organic vegetable garden. By now you are addicted to the fun of growing, eating, composting and re-growing. You want to maximise the yield, but don't want to spend on it. You have heard vermicompost is good for plants, but when you check the price for curiosity, here is how it looks.  On ebay, people sell a kg of vermicompost for 150 rupees! Sometimes it is even more - Rs 150 for 500 grams! In some…

A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest on July 19, 2014. Pic courtesy: Reuters Some time ago, a couple of days after the rape of a school girl in a leading school, there was this very striking image, published on the front page of a leading newspaper; it was that of a visibly angry young woman who was part of a protest group appearing to shout at someone, maybe at someone in the school (we will probably never know). That face and that anger which was so palpable, in essence captured the anger of a whole lot of people, be…

In the recent past, there have been quite a few instances where the courts have intervened with respect to civic projects. The recent one was when the Karnataka High Court directed civic agencies to widen the Hulimavu-Begur road- a case where the BBMP and a real estate company were at loggerheads. In another case, the Karnataka High Court directed the BBMP to get rid of encroachments on footpaths – this order was passed in response to a petition filed by an individual to make footpaths accessible to pedestrians. Yet another case was when the High Court ruled mixed land use…

18 corporators of BBMP became members of the first Metropolitan Planning Committee of the Bangalore region. This is an important and hard-won step forward in getting a proper planning body for the city. There are many drawbacks in the way the MPC has been constituted, but at least we have an institution that is supposed to do the planning now. Making it work effectively is another ballgame altogether, and we must work with the State government to properly devolve powers to this body and give it some real teeth to fix the city. Around the country, only a few MPCs…

One has to be thankful that a beginning has been made to create Bangalore Metropolitan Planning Committee. But why have the MPC Rules been framed to apply only to Bangalore, while Mysore and Hubli—Dharwad are also about to cross the 10 lakh population criterion, or have already crossed it? Are the rules going to be framed for each city separately? The way the rules have been framed for the MPC’s  functioning, it will serve only two functions: 1) to comply with the High Court order to meet the letter of the law, but not its spirit; 2) to continue to…

Anyone who has lived in Bangalore for some time will fondly remember the pleasant climate, flowers blooming and the city roads covered with flowers of all hues and colours. Alas, it is no more like this today, and the city is competing with Kolkata and Chennai in summer temperatures, and vast stretches of our water-starved city are left to the mercy of water tankers. Rapid urbanisation, unplanned development and a free run to land mafia has led to massive encroachment of lake land, raja-kaluves and large-scale exploitation of underground water. Today, 85-90% of lakes have turned dry and are sitting…

Worshipful Mayor Smt Shantakumari, Kindly accept my heartfelt congrats as well as the ‘Best Wishes’ on entering your new office as the Mayor of Bangalore, from this hearing-challenged senior citizen (75+), a consumer/social activist !! I learnt from a website that dedicates itself for the welfare of the citizens of our city, that you're presently on a mission, visiting nook and corner, to study the civic problems and to improve the state of affairs, amenities, etc, so that we could lead a peaceful life, during your regime. Kindly excuse my liberties to come out with the following suggestions: After worshipping…

Preschools are much-needed in today's situation, but the sector is unregulated, so does not have any norms. File pic. There has been a preschool boom in Bangalore. Each layout, especially the residential ones, has at least a dozen preschools. The reasons seem quite obvious. What was once a play home for toddlers has now evolved as a lucrative business. Playschools have upgraded to preschools, which is undoubtedly a welcoming development for parents. What is unfortunate is the way this progress has blatantly turned into a money-making opportunity. A few years earlier, preschool education was a choice. Today, preschools have become…