Policy

It was among the first PILs that was filed by the Citizens' Action Forum and it wasn’t even their first course of action! For a group that is often accused of being trigger-happy with the judiciary, CAF's petition against the Master Plan 2015 was a last recourse, after they had exhausted all other options.   When the BDA released the draft of its Master Plan 2015, it proposed rapid commercialisation of largely residential areas in Bangalore, allowing for almost unchecked change of land use. Bangalore had begun to boom by the start of the millennium. The rise of the IT…

As the #MeToo movement from the West settled on Indian shores, brewing up a storm in Bollywood and the Indian media industry, the corporates were not left behind in the exercise of ousting perpetrators of sexual harassment this year. Companies are now mandated to compulsorily disclose sexual harassment cases in their annual reports.  A study of companies listed in Nifty shows, in the FY 2018 alone, 601 cases of sexual harassment have been reported. Wipro recorded 101 cases, ICICI bank follows with 99 cases, and Infosys with 77 cases in 2018. Companies hire external firms to implement the POSH Act, manage redressal…

A recent survey by the Information and Resource Center for Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC) has shed light on the precarious living conditions and lack of access to basic services by a majority of homeless children in the city. The city's homeless have long been relegated to the fringes and left to fend for themselves. Efforts to increase the number of night shelters and other services available to them has moved at glacial pace. Understanding the services available and availed by the urban homeless, especially children, becomes vital to improve facilities and service delivery. The IRCDUC survey examined eleven parameters including…

While there have been attempts to formally plan the growth of a city, this has not proved to be successful in many parts of the world. Informality does play a significant role in several cities, especially those that are in the emerging economies. For those working in the informal sector, access to capital is limited and resources are not plentiful. The informal worker or the street vendor therefore borrows from the public spaces of the city where no price or a small price can reduce or eliminate the overheads related to rent or ownership of a space. In a study…

This article is part of a special series: Air Quality in our Cities A recent study by the Centre for Science and Environment ranked Chennai second, only behind Delhi, on emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, toxic pollutants, particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide due to urban commute. The average trip length of cars were found to be highest in Chennai. Low public transport ridership and growing population have been identified as the cause for poor showing, which is predicted to get worse if measures are not put in place to check vehicular emissions. The growing vehicular population in Chennai and Tamil…

Like most other cities in India, Bhubaneswar has two faces. One is as tinselly and bright as you would expect a fast-growing city to be. The other frowns with the strain and concentration of having to look good. Bhubaneswar was the first choice of the Ministry of Urban Development's (MoUD) flagship Smart City project. A year later, it featured in the top 20 global cities of the world in the Global Smart City Performance Index 2017,  according to a survey by UK-based Juniper Research. The city was a member of a list that included Singapore (that topped the list), San Francisco, London, New…

Despite a government order directing State Road Transport Offices (RTO) across India to issue Driving Licences to the hearing-impaired, and court orders to the effect, the ground reality seems to be the exact opposite. RTOs still follow age-old rules to grant (or not grant, in this case) an opportunity to obtain the learners' Licence (LLR) and eventually, a driver's licence to people with hearing challenges. At least that's what my recent experience has shown. RTO apathy I recently accompanied a hearing-impaired person to an RTO in Chennai, hoping for him to obtain a Learner's License (LLR). Here is a brief overview…

LED lights to illuminate Bengaluru airport's second runway in 2019 The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA)'s brand new second runway slated to operate from October 2019 will be powered by energy and cost-saving LED lights. This choice was made to ensure lower maintenance, reduce power cost, ensure higher levels of safety and efficient operations. This will be the only airport in India to have LEDs. In a press release issued by Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), CFO Tom Shimmin said that US based company, ADB Safegate, will be installing the necessary equipment to maintain the airfield’s LED lights such as cables…

Three-month deadline for Bengaluru weddings to stop using plastic BBMP issued a notice on September 7th to marriage halls or kalyan mantapas, instructing them to stop using plastic material for functions, listing out all the alternative steps that may be taken to curb the plastic menace. The notice said that plate banks of steel, ceramic and melamine cutlery should be accumulated along with massive dishwashers to minimize wastage of water and maximise hygiene. Other recommendations include RO purifiers to supply drinking water, colour coded dustbins for segregation, avoidance of banana leaves that make segregation of wet-waste difficult, and setting up…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner Manjunath Prasad has said that properties in 110 villages added to BBMP in 2007, which are on B-Khatha list, will be regularised. These properties will be de-linked from the Akrama-Sakrama scheme, on which a public interest litigation is going on in the Supreme Court. It is not clear how many properties will benefit from this, and whether it will be vacant sites alone, or if it will include the built up properties as well. The statement comes in the backdrop of the Karnataka government's move to amend the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964. This will regularise…