PRESS RELEASE

Citizen Matters and ApartmentADDA invite citizens of Bengaluru to submit articles on the topic “If I were the Bengaluru Mayor”. Entries can be in Kannada or English and between 800 to 1200 words. The best entry in each language has a chance to win a cash prize of Rs 10,000, sponsored by ApartmentADDA. The contest, which is open to all citizens above 15 years, is an opportunity for participants to articulate their vision for Bengaluru, and a plan that they’d execute if they were the mayor. The contest encourages Bengalureans to think on and engage with issues of importance to…

Three years ago when Sampath Ramanujam, Founder of Anvaya Foundation travelled to Kaiwara, along with his family, he met two girls who were playing happily with a fully damaged cycle with no bell, no brake and not even a seat. It was then that he realised that around 30 to 40 cycles were lying unused in each block of his apartment. That incident inspired Anvaya Foundation team to come up with the concept of “Freedom Pedals”.  He along with others started an initiative to make use of these cycles. For the past three years, they have been collecting unused cycles…

‘Faire’, in French, means ‘to do’ or ‘to make’ and that is at the heart of what Vigyana Habba aims to achieve. The fair was aimed to encourage a scientific spirit among children that questions, probes and finds solutions. It was not just a show and tell event - participants as well as visitors learned by “doing” stuff. On Saturday, Aug 19th, 2017, over 44 teams participated in the second edition of the Soul Kere Science Fair - Vigyana Habba. The participating students were from grades 1 to 12 of various school and communities in the neighborhood of the lake.…

When was the last time you saw a disability inclusive flash mob event? Can’t remember? Neither can I. On the evening of 13th august, in the spirit of Independence Day, people gathered in forum mall, Koramangala, beheld the awe-inspiring performances led by OSAAT-One Step At A Time, constituting of people from all walks of disabilities along with able bodied individuals, dancing their hearts out, to show the world that they’re danceabled. OSAAT is a nonprofit organisation striving to increase awareness on disability and build communities/ support groups for people with disabilities. They conduct programs encircling adaptive dance, theater and fitness,…

Karnataka Composting Development Corporation (KCDC) in HSR Layout, Bengaluru, is in news yet again. Residents are demanding that the government: 1. Shift the existing plant immediately to a remote and unpopulated location outside the city limits, as all other options to control the odour from the plant have failed 2. Limit the current intake of the wet waste to 70 tonnes as an interim measure to reduce the smell until plant shifts out to remote location. 3. Clear the Refuse-Derived Fuel backlog, release the encroached land and restores the ecosystem of the lake as per the NGT norms. Through an…

Bengaluru produces an estimated two lakh tonnes of e-waste annually. But 90% of this goes to landfills or scrap dealers who then sell it to illegal recyclers. bE-Responsible is an initiative for Environmentally Responsible Collection and Recycling of e- waste in Bangalore. We have launched a campaign is to encourage people to drop e-waste at collection points at Bangalore One centres. Twenty-three students of Christ College have volunteered for this drive. This initiative which was started in January 2017 has collected e-waste and reached out to around 40,000 individuals through our campaigns and outreach programs. What has been done thus far:  3…

Greenpeace India recently launched its Waste To Food campaign to create awareness about segregation of waste and composting of organic matter among the citizens of Bengaluru. With the population of nearly 10 million, Bengaluru produces between 3,000 tonnes to 5,000 tonnes of garbage every day of which around 60 percent is  organic waste. To kickstart the campaign, activists from Greenpeace India placed placards with the message 'Waste To Food'  at five locations across the city where unsegregated garbage is being dumped unceremoniously at public spaces. “The city deserves better, and the authorities need to pay immediate attention. While there are…

Early in the morning, around 7.30 a.m., on 18 January 2013, BBMP officials, bulldozers, a demolition crew, and a police force consisting of approximately 500 policemen and 20 policewomen reached the EWS housing settlement. When residents tried to resist the demolition, they were subjected to violence. The police arrested 21 women dragging them into their vans, some of them by their hair. They were taken to two police stations, implicated on false charges, and detained overnight. Residents reported that the BBMP Commissioner had assured them that evictions would not begin until the end of the academic year (April). But this…

Karnataka government has published a draft notification of Common Zoning Rules to be applicable across the state, with the last date for objections being July 30th, 2017. Citizen Action Forum, a Bengaluru-based nongovernmental organisation, has come up with a sample letter highlighting the problems of the new Common Zonal Regulations (CZR) and asking the government to re-consider the new zoning rules that will make master plans irrelevant. July 30th, 2017, is the last date for the objections to be filed. Interested Resident Welfare Organisations (RWAs) can check it out and send it to the concerned department or Chief Minister's office.…

Compared to Indiranagar and Koramangla, HSR Layout is a reasonably new layout and hence the tree cover is very sparse. With this in mind, the active citizens of the layout, the volunteers of HSR Citizen Forum came together to brainstorm on ideas to increase the tree cover. “When we took a walk to identify locations to plant tree saplings, we saw most homes and commercial outlets had the area in front of them neatly concretized. Planting there would involve drilling through the concrete, cutting it and making space for soil, compost, sapling and tree guard,” says Krupa, a resident of sector…