GENRE: Voices

Everyone in Bengaluru would have seen and been disgusted by mounds of garbage on the roads. Everyone heaves a sigh of relief when the BBMP carts off waste upon receiving complaints from frustrated residents. But where does the garbage go? Government has come up with a quick fix solution for Bengaluru's garbage woes - five Waste to Energy (WtE) plants with a combined capacity to manage 2100 tonnes of waste per day. Many people may think - wow, Waste to Energy! That’s a brilliant concept! Solves two crises in one go! Absolutely wrong. Here are five reasons why: WtE plants…

The Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation is planning to geo-tag nearly 60K medical equipment costing over more than Rs.1,500 crore in government clinics, hospitals and medical colleges to ensure maintenance and prevent thefts.  The state public health department has planned to distribute deworming tablets to everyone in Tamil Nadu instead of just children, twice every year for at least five years from February 2020 in an endeavour to fight against anaemia. More than half the pregnant women and adolescents girls in the state suffer from anaemia, which also results from hookworm infections.  Plans are being charted by Greater Chennai Corporation…

Translated by Omshivaprakash H L and Mukund Gowda ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತಾರು ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ, 1993 ರ ಜೂನ್ 1 ರಂದು ನಗರ ಆಡಳಿತದಲ್ಲಿ “ಜನರಿಗೆ ಅಧಿಕಾರ” ನೀಡಲು 74 ನೇ ಸಾಂವಿಧಾನಿಕ ತಿದ್ದುಪಡಿ ಅಥವಾ ನಾಗರಪಾಲಿಕಾ ಕಾಯ್ದೆಯನ್ನು ಜಾರಿಗೆ ತರಲಾಯಿತು. 74 ನೇ ಸಿಎ ಅಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ, ವಿಕೇಂದ್ರೀಕರಣಕ್ಕೆ ಮಹತ್ವ ನೀಡಿ, ನಾಗರಿಕರ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹೊಣೆಗಾರಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ಹೆಚ್ಚಸಲು  ಮೂರು ಲಕ್ಷಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಜನಸಂಖ್ಯೆ ಹೊಂದಿರುವ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಪುರಸಭೆ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಾರ್ಡ್ ಸಮಿತಿಗಳನ್ನು ರಚಿಸಬೇಕಾಗಿತ್ತು. ವಾರ್ಡ್ ಸಮಿತಿಯ ಸದಸ್ಯರು ವಾರ್ಡ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ ಕೈಗೊಂಡ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನು ವಿಶ್ಲೇಷಿಸುವುದು, ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿ ಯೋಜನೆಯನ್ನು ರಚಿಸುವುದು, ವಿವಿಧ ಕಾಮಗಾರಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಬಜೆಟ್ ಹಂಚಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಧರಿಸುವುದು ಇತ್ಯಾದಿಗಳನ್ನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕಾಗಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ಆದರೆ ಅನೇಕ ವಾರ್ಡ್‌ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ, ಸಭೆಗಳು ಅನಿರ್ಧಿಷ್ಟವಾಗಿದೆ, ‍ಸಮಿತಿಯ ಸದಸ್ಯರಿಗೆ ಮಾತಿಗೆ ಯಾವುದೇ ಅವಕಾಶ‌ ನೀಡದೇ, ಕೌನ್ಸಿಲರ್‌ಗಳು ಏಕಪಕ್ಷೀಯ ನಿರ್ಧಾರಗಳನ್ನು  ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಇನ್ನು ಹಲವು ವಾರ್ಡ್‌ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ, ಸಭೆಗಳು ಕೇವಲ ಕುಂದುಕೊರತೆ ಹೇಳಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ವೇದಿಕೆಗಳಾಗಿ ಮಾರ್ಪಟ್ಟಿವೆ.‌ ಅದಾಗ್ಯೂ  ಈ ಕುಂದುಕೊರತೆಗಳನ್ನು ನೋಂದಾಯಿಸುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ಅಥವಾ ಪರಿಹರಿಸಲಾಗಿಲ್ಲ.…

Moin Basha used to grow ragi on a small tract of land he owned in Mugabala village in the outskirts of Bengaluru. When water scarcity and mounting debt from failed borewells forced him to abandon his primary livelihood, he looked to the city for an alternate livelihood. Now he is a technician with an electronics service centre in north Bengaluru but continues to live in Mugabala, thanks to the improved road connectivity between Bengaluru and Mugabala, which is located close to NH 75 that passes through Bengaluru. Road infrastructure projects like these are enabling an important transition in and around…

To say that the year 2019 belonged to the young people of the world would be understating it. Their voices were powerful and arresting with one clear message - “fall in line or fall by the wayside”. Climate change was one of the issues the youth engaged with, globally. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist whom Time magazine recently named as its youngest-ever 'Person of the Year', had called for a worldwide protest in September. Thousands of youngsters responded to her call and flooded the streets across cities. An offshoot of that movement was Fridays For Future (FFF), a group…

As responsible citizens, we need to realize that safe driving is in the interest of each of us, and our safety is not the responsibility of the government or of anyone else. The sooner we accept this fact, the better. Earlier this year, the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 was passed by the government with a view to strengthening road safety. The new law sets out much harsher penalties for violation of traffic rules, but even after that we see newspaper headlines on accidents across the country almost every other day. Many of these could have been clearly avoided if…

As the central and state governments seek to boost startups and create a startup culture, there has been a spurt in young entrepreneurs experimenting with innovative ideas that will become the next unicorn. In 2019 alone, over 1300 startups were registered in the country. India currently has around 8900 startups in the technology domain alone. While a good number of new ventures are centred around technologies like artificial intelligence, other fields too are seeing a host of startups, some examples being YourStory, a startup about startups, legal-tech startups such as Leegality and startups focusing on social issues like Think Niti,…

Ten days ago, some miscreant children battered seven tiny puppies at Nagaraj Layout in Whitefield. The puppies, stoned and beaten with iron rods, were taken to the hospital by residents nearby. Five of the puppies died, and another one died today. As of now only one survives, Mintu. The incident was reported in newspapers and shared on social media. When students from Parikrma Humanity Foundation - aged between 6 and 16 years - came to know of this, they were very upset and decided to do something for the puppies. They made paintings, and have been holding a fundraiser since Thursday for the…

On December 19th at Bengaluru, eminent historian Ramachandra Guha was dragged away by the police while protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), on the charge that he had violated Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Guha later retorted that the crowds had been protesting non-violently in a disciplined way to uphold the values of the Constitution and told the Police Commissioner: “You have used a colonial-era law to suppress us and our voices."  Not Guha alone, hundreds of protesters, that included included Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav and politicians D Raja, Sitaram Yechury, Umar Khalid, Sandeep Dikshit and…

Residents across the city have at one time or another faced sudden inspections of the LPG connection at home. These often catch them by surprise as most people are unaware of the requirement of these checks and the frequency at which these should be conducted. Inspections are recommended once every five years, to be conducted by authorised personnel from the respective gas agencies which supply the cylinders. Lack of awareness about this has led to residents being duped by unauthorised individuals who carry out inspections at will and fleece them. However, before we decide to do away with inspections altogether,…