OPINION

After lot of search, finally you zero in on an under-construction apartment to buy. Your decisions are based on cost, location, developed, accessibility, quality, reputation of builder etc. The builder as usual promises moon to every buyer and buyer gets impressed by glossy brochures and sugary words of so called sales managers. So you start dreaming about living in your own dwelling. The builder then sets the terms for payment - 20% advance, 70% for slabs (for a typical G+3 Apartment), 10% after sale deed registration. After paying the advance (20%), you will apply for a bank loan. If your…

Cycling has been quite a bit in the news lately, thanks to the activities of several individuals and organisations trying their best to popularise cycling. I often cycle to work - so I though I would write about my experience and perhaps dispel some of the myths associated with cycle commuting. Ramesh Sreekantan, a cycling enthusiast. I live in Malleshwaram and work in Kengeri. So it's a distance of about 15 to 20 kms, depending on the route. The route I take is down Chord Road to Nayandahalli main road and in to the University campus. I usually return via…

“People just don’t care! There is no sense of civic responsibility. People just want the waste out of their houses”. This I heard from almost every informant I talked to. In this article, I want to share some of my findings during the past two and a half month I have been here in Bengaluru. I came to India for the first time in 2008 and found the country enchanting but also overwhelming. I wanted to come back again and so I did - three times more since then. This time I am here to do a research for my…

The Department of Urban Development of the Government of Karnataka has published the draft rules for the Constitution of the Metropolitan Planning Committee for the Bangalore Metropolitan Region and invited comments from the general public on these rules. These are my comments, following a detailed consideration of the provisions of these rules. Overview of the proposed MPC structure Draft rule 3 speaks of the constitution of the Committee. The State government nominees are: The Chief Minister Minister for urban development Chairperson, BDA Principal secretary to government Urban Development One representative of the Government of India (National Capital Region and Planning…

Following is the text of objections and recommendations by CIVIC. Rules should be general: They should be applicable to any metropolitan city in Karnataka - not just Bangalore, as many other cities in Karnataka have reached or are fast-approaching the population mark of 10 lakhs and will require MPCs to be set up. Recommendation: The Rules need to be general, to apply to all cities which cross the 10 lakh population limit. Public discussion needs to happen: There has been no prior public intimation of the intention of the government to draft the said Rules as per Section 4(1)(c) and…

For many years now, civil society has waged a long fight to get a proper Planning body instituted for Bangalore and other large cities. This is not only essential in order to coordinate different development activities in all sectors, but also required by the Constitution. Now, in responding to a PIL by C N Kumar, the government has put out the draft notification to create this body. Purely institutionally, it is a victory for all of us. JNNURM was supposed to get this done, but that was dodged by packing the Mission with pliable appointments and state governments that cooperated…

Just a few months ago – on 23 February 2013– a fancy, “sky kissing” (ambara chumbana) clock tower, the tallest in the state, was installed with much fanfare at a cost of over Rs 90 lakhs (by a cash-strapped city administration). The fancy clock not only showed the time, it was supposed to change colour for each day of the week - orange for Tuesdays, blue, green etc. Go take a look now – the ‘colour changing’ bit has not lasted even a few months. It remains orange forever. Spend money on a 'colour-changing’ fancy contraption, pay the contractor, and…

Chief Election Officer of Karnataka published a new version of Electoral Rolls on 3 November 2013, on his website. My observations here are limited to the electoral rolls of 28 constituencies of Bengaluru. Data quality of the rolls has improved compared with the version published in May 2013. 240 of the 370 voters below age 18 were infants at age 0 and age 1. They have all grown up and become 18 to 98 year old in the new list. Interestingly 57% of them are 23 year old now, ready to register in matrimonial sites. Did the AEROs check the…

We spend a lot of time talking about national politics in India, with the general elections in 2014 being a subject of conversations for well over a year now. Conversations on state level politics take up the remainder of our time. In contrast, many of the problems that we face in Bengaluru on a day to day basis are municipal in nature: be it the lack of good roads and public transport, unreliable power supply, unsafe drinking water or garbage that lines our streets. Who becomes your next corporator or local council member is perhaps as important as who becomes…

Problems in Bengaluru • There is no leadership of the city. Most of the important public services are in the hands of the State government, which is more concerned with its State-level priorities than with the city’s. Mayors serve short, uneventful terms. • There is hardly any planning. BDA does no more than zoning of areas for different uses, and even this is very poorly enforced. Other agencies plan-as-they-go, without any reference to a regional or city-level perspective. There is no commonality of jurisdiction among agencies, either. • The legal steps (outlined in the 74th Constitution Amendment Act, 1992) to…