Civic

Recently, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the Revised Master Plan - 2015 (RMP), or the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) for the Bangalore Metropolitan Region (BMR) was admitted in the Karnataka High Court. The PIL was filed by the Citizens' Action Forum (CAF), the Sadashivnagar Residents' Welfare Association (SRWA) and 12 distinguished citizens against the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), for disregarding public sentiments and expert opinion and going ahead with the RMP in its present form. Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice Ravi Malimath admitted the writ petition (Case: 3676, 2008) on 3 March. The petitioners have charged that the…

As is well known by now, the city's road widening project is also causing a massive cutting down of trees. There is now the risk that it might reduce the greenery of the garden city just to its gardens. A PIL was filed with the High Court by the Environment Support Group (ESG) asking the court, amongst other things, to put a stay the project. As a response to the PIL, the High Court on 28 June appointed a panel of experts to a review committee to oversee developmental projects like the Metro, underpasses, road widening, and so forth. According…

In one of the many public appearances that Ramalinga Reddy, MLA, (Congress-BTM Layout constituency) is making these days, he visited the ST Bed area on 21 June, Saturday. The residents of ST Bed area organised a meeting comprising of all the officers from the different government departments including the BBMP, BWSSB, BDA, Police, etc. The stage was decked with around a dozen people including the Reddy. Around a 100 people attended this meeting. Citizens listing to officers at the meeting. Pic: Author. Before the meeting Reddy had already been visiting the area, since his victory in the elections. He recently…

There was soil dumped into one of the empty houses on the J P Nagar's 15th Cross Ring Road, a critical artery in the southern side of the city, at the intersection with the 24th Main Road. People were talking about soil testing happening in the area when suddenly the road was blocked and the traffic was diverted. It was after two weeks that a board was put up by the BBMP and it was understood that an underpass was being constructed. That was on 11 May 2008, another magic underpass under construction. The residents till then were clueless about…

On the morning of 25 June, residents of Malleswaram, accompanied by ACP Krishnappa, took a different kind of walk. About 30 of us joined Krishnappa and Inspector Aslam at 7.30 AM to walk around a few streets of the area, to highlight the problems of traffic created by garbage, debris, cement blocks and lack of street lights. The walk was a result of a citizens' meeting that took place on 23 June, again at the behest of ACP Krishnappa in his police station. During the meet, some of us met up with officials of BESCOM, the forest department and a…

Bangalore has a large number of NGOs doing enormous work in various fields like leprosy eradication, caring for schizophrenics or dyslexics, protesting against felling of trees and so on. But there's also a group of volunteers who prefer to remain just that, and quietly go about their work without evangelism. They belong to Clean and Green, an organisation instituted for the specific purpose of keeping Bangalore that way. One of the volunteers briefing the others about using the rakes and sacks. Pic: Author. Clean and Green was born in February 2006, when a group of six came together and decided…

A common scene from Hindi movies is where the hero comes in as the good man in power (often as police) and throws out all the culprits. This arose in real life last weekend (May 17) when the Bangalore Developent Authority (BDA) Commissioner H Siddaiah threw out a doctor practicing for three months in a shop in the BDA Shopping Complex (commonly known as the 'BDA complex') on the Inner Ring Road, Koramangala. The shop that was closed; signboard on the right. Pic: Supriya Khandekar. Dr Jalal Farooqui was termed an encroacher by the BDA as he had no papers…

Access to information using the RTI Act may have changed for the worse. The Government of Karnataka under Governor Rameshwar Thakur's administration has added a new rule, #14, which places a restriction on the subjects and the number of words to be contained in an application asking for information under the RTI Act. The rule was in the form of amendment (GO) to RTI rules 2005 and signed by the Under Secretary, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms on behalf of President of India and published in the Gazette of GOK. It is now in force. The rule allows only…

On 14 May, the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) ruled that the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) can be construed as “Public Authority” and therefore it would be within the purview of the RTI Act. This issue arose out of an RTI application regarding suo motu disclosure by BIAL sought Benson Isaac, a citizen. While refusing to entertain Isaac's RTI application, BIAL took the stand that it was not a public authority as defined under the Act and as such was not under any obligation to make disclosures under RTI. Isaac then appealed at the KIC. The KIC used Section 2(h)…

This election season, some RWAs (Residents Welfare Associations), NGOs and citizen groups have taken the initiative in their respective areas to invite candidates and interact with them. They are presenting a Citizens' Charter that sets out of how citizens want candidate to communicate, consult with the public & complete promised programs, after they get elected. Here is a roundup from the various localities. Rajajinagar 1st Block [27 Apr]By Dr. Meenakshi Bharath A meeting was organized by the RWA of First N and R block in Rajaji Nagar. Candidates present included R.V Hareesh (BJP) and K. Gopalaiah (JDS) Candidates interacting with…