Civic

As I walk to work, I pass by one of the intersections on 17th Cross every day. This is a one way road and therefore attracts a good amount of traffic. Luckily the road has still retained its old charm and has not deteriorated into the chaos that is 15th cross.  In the last few months, a house that stood at the intersection has been undergoing renovations. I did not pay much attention to it till it was completed. There is so much building and re-building happening in Malleshwaram that unless it is the demise of a grand old house,…

Members of the Whitefield Rising group with the Namma Bengaluru award We gave no consent and we got awarded for that! You read that right. On March 14th, Whitefield Rising won the Namma Bengaluru Foundation award for disagreeing and sometimes being disagreeable! Strange, isn’t it? Read on to find out why. We all agree that the state of affairs around us is, putting it mildly, not good. Child rape, sewage in the lakes, garbage on the streets, inequality in our society and many more civic and humanitarian issues. As Ela Bhatt says, this is 'violence to our own with the consent of state and…

Namma Bengaluru Awards - 2014 winners. Pic: Namma Bengaluru Foundation It was yet again a time to celebrate the citizen heroes of Bengaluru. At a function held on March 14th 2015 at Shalini Grounds, Jayanagar, 5th Block to award Namma Bengaluru Awards, the spirit of citizenship and united Bengaluru soared high. The 6th Edition of Namma Bengaluru Awards had 14 categories in which people from multiple facilities were selected as heroes. Kathyayini Chamaraj, trustee of CIVIC, also writes for Citizen Matters received Namma Bengalurean of the year award, for her relentless pursuing of civic issues such as ward committee rules,…

154 Breakfast Club in Koramangala 3rd Block. Pic: Akshatha Rao “BBMP Commissioner, stop the arbitrary witch-hunt against citizens!” This is the plea put forward by some citizens of South Bengaluru. Mukund Kumar, a resident of Bellandur, has come up with the petition, which demands that the BBMP stop targeting citizens who stand up for what is right. The petition calls the action of the BBMP, of serving a notice to three residents of Koramangala asking them to submit the plan sanction documents for their residences, as a “targeted attack on an individual or individuals by the Government of any civilised…

In my earlier article dated August 19th, I had advocated the creation of a halt station on existing railway tracks, i.e. optimal use of resources, in turn saving our tax money. I would like to applaud Whitefield Rising for taking up this initiative and raising funds for the halt station. I was earlier requested to do a preliminary analysis by visiting sites at these locations, analyse feasibility and share my insights.  We should certainly go ahead with setting up halt stations between the junctions from Byappanhalli to IOL, Soukhya Spa (i.e. KIADB Phase II where there are warehouses). Often we just…

For the third time, we are getting Lifedream skills to town. You can now pitch in to teach the youth who badly need intervention to get a leg up and become employable slowly redeeming their self esteem as well in that process. You already saw Christina's story. The ideal candidate is someone between 18 and 28, female. In some cases we can take 17.5 years or 30. The minimum education is 8th standard pass/fail, but we can have graduates also - depending on their 'level' they benefit, as the course is designed that way. This is targeted towards poor students…

It's been a year since we moved to this home in ISRO Layout. A terrace for the kids to play, another terrace for our Kambha / stand-in pot and yet another one for my terrace garden plot. Perfect? No. What set off the home-happiness balance was the empty plot next door. It's been a year long journey of attempts to locate the owner, getting BBMP to stop dumping in the site and stop burning garbage and dry leaves in the site. Telling the PKs, calling the BBMP control room, catching supervisors in action setting fire to garbage piled up. We…

Sudheendra and Channa Keshava, two civic activists undergoing the civic leadership training (B.CLIP) from B.PAC, organised a waste management awareness program in their wards on Saturday. Nagapura and Shivnagara wards in Bengaluru saw the coming together of the local community, elected representatives, pourakarmikas and the local government school children on the morning of January 10th, for a noble cause. So far several wards across Bengaluru such as Shivnagara, Nagapura, Kadugodi, Marappanpalya, Bapuji Nagara, Malleshwaram and Vidyaranyapura have been significantly benefitted from the initiatives of the leadership training program, and the multiplier effect will slowly but surely change the landscape of…

Taking Stock So much has been done. Over the coming days, we will share a series of newsletters focused on a topic or two at a time so we don't overwhelm you in one annual review :). In summary however, its been a year of phenomenal citizen engagement. It is only when we pause a moment and look back can we see how far we have come. All this work however, brings us only to Base Camp. The climb will begin now and we are ready for it. Stay current with all the happennings via our blogposts at www.whitefieldrising.org as…

Citizen Matters co-founder Meera K receiving Manthan award in News Delhi. Pic: Navya P K On the evening of December 4th, Citizen Matters won yet another award. The tally, including reporting awards won by our erstwhile reporters Navya P K, Vaishnavi Vittal and Supriya Khandekar, is now six, in six years. The last five have come in three years. It is an even split now between awards for individual storytelling and for the publication itself. What do these awards mean to me, a journalism entrepreneur and innovator? One way to answer this question is to see what our work has…