GENRE: Voices

There are a lot of plans which are chalked out by all civic authorities to make Bangalore garbage free. But here are some simple things which you can do to make a huge difference- 1. Prevention is better than cure, so our main focus and priority should be on minimising waste to reduce the amount of waste generated. For instance, we urge people to stop using plastic bags. But, government needs to provide an alternative to this. Shops should be set up to sell cloth bags at cheaper rate. If cloth bags are available, then people will buy them and…

The proposal to widen six roads - actually, just small segments of these roads - lacks everything we would wish for in urban design. It's not part of an overall strategy of mobility in the city; it's not clear what goals are expected to be achieved; it's not being done as per the KTCP Act which requires these projects to be carried out through town planning schemes, and it doesn't even copy the best of such efforts from other parts of India. First, they are not proposing to actually widen roads, but only some stretches of the roads. Widening Bannerghatta…

A few months back, when Union Minister Jairam Ramesh made an observation that in India we have more temples than toilets, there was a general unqualified uproar among the political class who demanded an apology even regarding a genuine concern, as always.As a resident of a ‘so called' well planned and affluent locality like HSR Layout, my observation is no different than the Union Minister. Construction workers waking up as early as 4 am to answer their calls of nature in an empty site nearby or dark spaces away from the view of early morning walkers is a regular ritual.…

The buses never stick to timings and hence lose the faith of the commuter. File pic. Fares on Bangalore’s public transport buses (BMTC) were hiked last month, and the reason for justifying the hike was that diesel prices and staff salaries had risen. Following protests, the public have been promised that the decision would be “reconsidered.” But as a commuter I am raising a wider issue – the obligation in a public service undertaking  to ensure that all alternative avenues of closing the gap between rising costs on the one hand and revenues generated on the other, are exhausted before…

We all dream of a clean city where there is no garbage on the road, where one does not hear vehicle horns constantly, where civic amenities are available when you need them. But is it really happening in our city? Who is responsible for this? Who should take the blame for it? I am sure many will jump and blame the government. I agree with the fact that partial blame lies with the governing bodies but what about us? Have we every questioned ourselves? Have we, in true sense of the word, been doing what requires out of us a…

I was a student at Manipal thirty five years ago. The college library used to be open till 1 am. Taking a break from studies, we would step down to the road to eat boiled eggs and rubbery toast, and drink some hot syrupy tea. After the library closed for the day, we would walk back to our hostels. When we worked nights at the hospital, we visited these food carts at all times of the night whenever our youthful stomachs groaned with hunger. When disturbing incidents like the rape and abduction of an unsuspecting young woman in Manipal is…

Recognizing that accidents are one of the biggest killers of children in India is paramount to preventing thousands of hospital admissions, hundreds of deaths and disabilities every week, in children. Understanding that many of these are avoidable is important to provide a safe environment to nurture our children before they are scarred for ever. With the objective of ensuring a safe and healthy environment for our children and to enable them to lead more active lives, Dr Supraja Chandrasekar, an oncosurgeon in Bangalore and Ilaunched the Safe Children Mission. Our plan of action includes increasing awareness among caregivers, providing safety…

The Governor has once again returned the Sakrama Bill. In any event, given the court case that is going on, any attempt by the government to circumvent the court was bound to land in trouble, so there's not much point in the Governor also getting embroiled in it. Let's face it - this Bill should be killed. It's a bad idea, always has been. But more than that, we should now be thinking about a scarier proposition - we have reached the stage in our politics where it is difficult to do good things because our representatives are being elected…

The bus fare increases are irrational, and unnecessary. There are at least three things which are wrong, and if these are fixed the bus service could be a lot better without needing to over-charge the poor. a) The government needs to recognise, in its budget, that bus service is a public service that needs subsidy. All over the world public transport is subsidised, because it is well-known that the positive values that result - lower congestion, for example - are far in excess of the subsidy itself. For some reason, the Karnataka government has steadfastly refused to subsidise the BMTC.…

Open the day’s newspaper, or switch on the TV, and what you get is a series of reports on some scam or the other - politicians exposed for their roles in illegal sanctions, nepotism, unaccounted money. However, I find the ‘other’ news reports, about non-political, social aberrations, equally alarming and distressing. The first week of June in particular saw a series of such reports that hold up a mirror to what is happening in the city, right next door to us, in so-called ‘ordinary’, nameless middle class urban families. On June 4, the police “rescued a naked woman in her…