pil

High Court to state: Why no law to regulate rallies in Bengaluru? High Court called the state government's conduct "contemptuous" for not putting in place a law to regulate public assemblies and processions in Bengaluru. The court was responding to a PIL filed by an advocate A V Amaranathan. He was seeking a direction to the state, to notify the Licensing and Controlling of Assemblies and Processions (Bangalore City) Order, 2008. The government had notified the draft order years ago. In April 2011, the High Court had disposed of PILs related to the problems caused by rallies and bandhs, after…

  HC to state: Set up expert body to prevent tree felling for Metro  A committee of environment, science and technology experts should be constituted to examine if metro rail projects can be undertaken without felling trees, directed the Karnataka High Court to the state government. This committee should examine every method to save trees; only if this is impossible, should trees be cut, said the court. The division bench comprising acting Chief Justice L Narayana Swamy and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar passed the interim order on a PIL filed in 2018 jointly by Dattatraya T Devare and the…

  HC notice to BBMP on white-topping Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on a PIL opposing the white-topping of South End Road, from Madhavan Park to Nettakallappa Circle via Nagasandra Circle. The order was passed by a Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice L Narayana Swamy and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar. The PIL had been filed by A C Chandrashekar Raju and seven other residents of Basavanagudi. They had pleaded that white-topping of roads was being done unscientifically, and that the BBMP had not worked out a scientific mechanism for laying…

Over 750 Resident Welfare Associations representing more than ten lakh Bangalore citizens under the platform of Namma Bengaluru Foundation and Bengaluru Residents Association Confederation Ensemble (BRACE) launched a protest against government’s failure to address citizens' concerns about massive corruption in Bangalore and the nexus of corrupt builders and some politicians that is destroying Bengaluru. The campaign that’s a result of the lackadaisical approach by the government despite the repeated pleas over a year now by the forum of BRACE will see a city wide signature campaign demanding the government for a Corruption free city that does not cater to mafias and…

Members of NBF and BRACE holding the press conference.T S Vidhyadhar, D S Rajshekar, Mahalakshmi Parthasarathy, Ravindranath Guru, Subbu Hegde, Nitin Seshadri and others are seen in the picture. Pic: Nikita Malusare Citizen Action Forum (CAF) backed by Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF), will question the Akrama Sakrama Bill – 2013 in court shortly. This was revealed in a press conference hosted by NBF on February 5th, 2014. N S Mukunda, President of Citizen Action Forum, who spoke in the press conference, questioned as to why the buyers should be responsible for the mistakes made by the builder. Since the bill…

Construction activities continue to encroach the drain that goes to Bellandur lake. Pic: Nikita Malusare The High Court of Karnataka on Monday, October 21, 2013, accepted the Public Interest Litigation against the Mantri developers and Coremind Software and Services along with other nine government departments. A bench comprising Justice K L Manjunath and Justice H S Kempanna directed that the defendants be served notices. Namma Bengaluru Foundation and Citizen Action Forum along with many resident welfare associations in and around Agara lake in south Bengaluru had filed a Public Interest Litigation (Writ Petition 36574/ 2013) on the Special Economic Zone…

Over 68 lakh people out of total 96 lakh have already enrolled for Aadhaar card in Bengaluru. Most are waiting for the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme to roll out, and for the LPG subsidy to come to the bank accounts mapped. While everyone was under the impression that Aadhaar card is mandatory for all government subsidies and services, a Supreme Court interim order issued on September 23, 2013, ruled that Aadhaar card cannot be made mandatory, it has to be voluntary. Retired justice Puttaswamy, the man behind the PIL filed in Supreme Court against UIDAI. Pic: Bosky Khanna Justice Puttaswamy,…

Who doesn't love getting a chance to hear his/her own language, in a far-off place? Across the world today, niche radio markets have found a place, with some channels choosing to cater to non-native residents. Mauritius has Radio Plus Indiz that broadcasts in Hindi, Bhojpuri, Tamil and Telugu from 1 pm to 3 pm every day. Radio Punjab focusses on the South-Asian population in Canada. There are Italian and Spanish radio stations in the USA. Citizen Matters, through this two-part series, tries to explore why Bangalore, though tagged as being ‘cosmopolitan,' doesn't have any space for the music of other…

Trees are as much a part of urban infrastructure and planning as roads and buildings, and most town and country planning acts worldwide include well thought-out provisions to nurture and protect trees. But Bangalore had clearly not been in sync, as was evident from the conclusions at a recent meeting of the Environment Support Group (ESG) on the 26th of January, 2013.The meeting included people from various backgrounds - students, professionals, civic representatives and had been convened with a view to seeking public opinion and consent to amend the KPTA (Karnataka Tree Preservation Act, 1976). Among those attending were D…

Instead of letting corporators and garbage contractors decide on the garbage problem, public can get directly involved now. High Court has directed that each ward in the city should form a ward committee, which will include 10 residents of the ward and will be headed by the local corporator. The committees are supposed to be functioning by January 21st; you can approach your corporator and suggest that you or any competent person you know, be included in the committee. BBMP is holding a Council meeting on 15th, during which corporators will submit their nominations.The interim order came in a PIL…