Civic

In his book, ‘Sidewalk’, Mitchell Duneier describes the lives of people who “work the street”, the book vendors, the magazine vendors and the ‘men without accounts’ who guard the door to the ATMs on Sixth Avenue in New York. It is an intensive ethnographical study of the social structure of street life in the city. As I read the book, I’m reminded of my interactions until now with the street vendors outside Russell market in Bangalore. They also “work the street” some becoming entrepreneurs out of necessity and others by choice, in many ways living the same lives as the…

The Ugly Indian (TUI) is an inspired community in its truest sense. One of the forerunners of large-scale citizen movement to clean up the streets of Bangalore, they have inspired large groups of people to take ownership of their locality and do their bit. It was only a matter of time before it picked up. Now the movement seems to have touched most of the educated elite in Bangalore. Several TUI-inspired spotfixing groups are getting formed across various localities of Bangalore. The groups that are currently in operation are: Whitefield Rising: All areas from Kundalahalli to ITPL Banaswadi Rising: Kammanahalla-Kasturi…

Spot fixing - a useful way to spend February 15, 2014 Saturday morning. Details below.  A few years ago, some of us from PNLIT spent a few hours in cleaning up a small garbage spot on Puttenahalli Road. The spot was bothering many, but all just walked past... no one was coming forward to do anything about it. Read more here. 'The Ugly Indian' group has been doing this kind of spot-fixing all over Bangalore for several years now. Read more here and here. They've been doing whatever they can, whenever they can, but as their resources are totally disproportional to…

Members of NBF and BRACE holding the press conference.T S Vidhyadhar, D S Rajshekar, Mahalakshmi Parthasarathy, Ravindranath Guru, Subbu Hegde, Nitin Seshadri and others are seen in the picture. Pic: Nikita Malusare Citizen Action Forum (CAF) backed by Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF), will question the Akrama Sakrama Bill – 2013 in court shortly. This was revealed in a press conference hosted by NBF on February 5th, 2014. N S Mukunda, President of Citizen Action Forum, who spoke in the press conference, questioned as to why the buyers should be responsible for the mistakes made by the builder. Since the bill…

The Goethe Institut, Bangalore tells you that it is "50 headphones. 1 synthetic voice. YOUR city." But, when you take the walk, you realise that they've given you this simple definition because there are sometimes no words to define such experiences. What I am about to tell you can't actually tell you much. And yet, I do want to say something, just so that some of you who haven't yet taken the walk, will want to try it. It tells us something we should know about our city and about who we are. To register, you can go to: REMOTE…

Rohini Kini of  Bums On The Saddle has created this procedural guidance in case your cycle has been stolen. You need to do some preparatory work, so get the details of your cycle now and keep them safely in case you ever need them. Spring into action immediately! Check around the area in case the thief has stashed the bike to pick it up later. File an FIR with the police (more details below). Record identifying features on the report – accessories, photographs and the frame number! Register your bike as stolen on the BOTS Stolen Bike registry. Visit shops in your…

According to Jana Mahiti report prepared by Ipaidabribe.com in 2010, the number of bribery cases was the highest in the Department of Stamps and Registration. The report even listed the top corrupt Sub-Registrar’s offices in Bengaluru. However, the future might change for the better, as there is some hope in the air. When P Manivannan, Chief Project Officer, Karnataka State Highways Improvement Project (KSHIP), known to be a reformist, was given the additional charge of Inspector General of Registration, Department of Stamps and Registration, the online crowd interested in bringing about some real change got curious. Manivannan is one of…

URBAN DEVEOPMENT DEPARTMENT SECRETARIATNOTIFICATION - INo.UDD 666 MyAPRa 2013' Bangalore, Dated: 31-12-2013The draft of the Karnataka Town and country Planning (Regulaflon of unauthorized development or constructions) Rules 2013, which the Government of Karnatata proposes to make in excercie of the powers conferred under section 76FF and read with section 74 of the Karnataka Town and Country planning Act, 1961 [Karnataka Act 11 of 1963) is hereby published as required under subsection (1) of section 74 of the said Act for the information of all persons likely to be affected thereby and notice is hereby given that the said draft will…