PRESS RELEASE

Deepika, a transgender and PUCL vice-president, presents a flower pot to Health Minister UT Khader as Ravindra, PD, KSAPS (centre white shirt) looks on. On the left is Simran Sheikh, national programme manager, India HIV AIDS Alliance and Manjula, Board President, Sangama is on the extreme right. Pic: B David “Karnataka will soon conduct a transgender survey and the Health Department will take the lead as it will ensure gender minorities’ access social entitlements and will support them to exercise their constitutional rights,” said Health Minister UT Khader. He was addressing over 200 transgenders, who gathered at the 3rd Transgender…

The Bengaluru City Police and Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) are proud to announce completion of the first phase of the CCTV project where 42 out of the 104 Police Stations have been equipped with CCTV cameras and surveillance in an effort to bring about greater transparency and make citizens, especially women and children feel safe when they visit a police station. The Bengaluru City Police and B.PAC with support from various city-based organisations have worked together for over a year on this project, long before the Supreme Court directed the Central Government and all states to install CCTV cameras…

The India Biodiversity Portal is organising an invasive species campaign through the month of August 2015: Spotting Alien Invasive Species or SPAIS. India Biodiversity Portal (IBP) is an online, open-access repository of information on India’s biodiversity. It has already conducted several campaigns involving citizens in documenting, contributing and sharing biodiversity information from diverse parts of the country. With the SPAIS campaign, IBP and its partners aim to create awareness about, and to map the occurrences of, a set of widespread invasive species in India. The campaign will be conducted online at: http://indiabiodiversity.org/group/spotting_alien_invasive_species/show.  What are alien species? Alien species are sometimes…

The dilapidated Vibgyor School road. Pic: Raghu Kumar When: Saturday August 1st, 10 am to 12 pm Where: Thubarahalli, Vibgyor School Road, Kundanahalli Gate, Munekolala Why: Lack of basic civic amenities Thubarahalli, Munnekola, Siddapura, Immidihalli, Pattandur Agrahara and other erstwhile villages surrounding the Whitefield area have become growth areas in the burgeoning Whitefield suburb of Bengaluru. With a large number of IT and ITES firms located in Whitefield, these villages have been converted by large builders into residential communities. Each of the villages has grown from supporting a small (tens) number of families to thousands of residences. Based on the…

Pic courtesy: Wikimedia Commons Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society has participated in the Expert Committee for DNA Profiling constituted by the Department of Biotechnology in 2012 for the purpose of deliberating on and finalising the draft Human DNA Profiling Bill and appreciates this opportunity. CIS respectively dissents from the January 2015 draft of the Bill. Based on the final draft of the Human DNA Profiling Bill that was circulated on the 13th of January 2015 by the committee, the Centre for Internet and Society is issuing this note of dissent on the following grounds: The Centre for Internet and…

Blood donation camp at SJR Park Vista. Pic: Indira PC  A voluntary blood donation camp was organised at SJR Park Vista, one of the 300+ residential communities on Sarjapur road, on June 27th. Held for the first time, the camp was initiated and organised by a resident, Indira PC, with support from the Residential Welfare Association and club-house management. The NIMHANS blood bank team, under the supervision of coordinator Beena Jayson and Dr Sukanya, conducted the camp. A total of 31 units of blood were collected from 31 donors (including donors from SJR Redwoods), which would go to the NIMHANS Blood Bank. Prior…

It’s back! And it’s bigger and better! (And cleaner!) The 1st Bengaluru Underground Festival (held in August 2014) was a unique first-of-its-kind Underground Festival to reclaim Bangalore’s filthy subways. The good news is that the subways have stayed clean and usable for a year now (despite lots of cynicism from lots of people), and it’s time to celebrate again! What is it? Bangalore is following in the footsteps of New York, London, Paris and major world cities, by transforming its underground pedestrian underpasses, or subways, from the stinking, dingy dangerous places that they have always been, to vibrant public spaces…

The fourth hearing of the complaint on debris and garbage under the Namma Metro lines, filed by Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) came up for hearing in front of Upa Lokayukta Subash B Adi on July 3rd. During the hearing, B.PAC submitted over 100 photographs showing the debris, construction waste and garbage still lying in the median of Namma Metro, despite the Upa Lokayukta’s previous order to the BBMP to clean up the mess. B.CLIP participants and other B.PAC volunteers conducted a daylong exercise on July 2nd, visiting the Metro line to check the status of the same. At South…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is currently the largest municipal corporation in the country, operating within an area of over 700 sq km. Due to the wide area of operation, there has been a lag in the service delivery to the citizens of the city. In view of this, Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC), in association with Daksh, is conducting a widespread survey on the performance and responsiveness of BBMP, and citizens' perception of the proposed trifurcation of the municipal corporation and the upcoming elections.  Please take a few minutes of your time and fill out the questionnaire below. This will help…

The Bruhat Bangalore Beedhi Vyaapaari Sanghatanegala Okkoota is (Federation of Street Vendor Unions of Bangalore) is calling for a protest rally and a bundh on street vending on Monday, June 15th. The protest march is scheduled for 10 am from City railway station to Freedom Park. Thousands of vendors are expected to participate from all eight zones of BBMP. This come in the light of the spate of evictions of street vendors by Bangalore’s police (Law and Order and Traffic) and BBMP officials. While the UPA-2  has brought in the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihoods and Regulation of Street Vending)…