Civic

SURVEY - If you are involved with Bangalore lakes, either as an experienced activist or a more recently engaged citizen, you are requested to answer the short survey here. Responses appreciated by 18th December 2013. For more details, read on... Bangalore lakes have grabbed unprecedented attention over the recent years, both in the media and academia. And this has not been limited by geographic location. Researchers from the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), Stockholm University, Sweden have been studying Bangalore lakes for a while now. Recently a film on Kaikondrahalli Lake was released by one of the project teams. More infomation…

A city which was known for its gardens is now just a city of dust.  I have a few issues to raise and want to know the thoughts around it from my fellow Bengalurians. I'm also looking for the platforms where such isuues could be raised. 1. Road Tax: Karnataka is a state which charges high road tax for any vehicle compared to another states. However, in past six years, I have not seen proper maintenance of roads in Bangalore, specifically south Bangalore. Where is this money going, is there any account? 2. No demarcation of stop lines or zebra…

The Government of Karnataka has issued the notification outlining the formation of Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC). The long-awaited step has been taken very secretively, with no publicity to this anywhere. Not even the Urban Development Department website has displayed it; nowhere has it been kept for public discussion. The draft notification has been gazetted and published on November 7, 2013, with 15 days for public feedback on the issue - that is on or before November 22, 2013. Problems MPC is supposed to solve Right now Bangalore has too many planning authorities that sanction approvals and plan the land use.…

A student felicitates a Poura Karmika. Pic courtesy: CMCA Thousands of children from the member schools of Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness will be thanking Pourakarmikas across the city this month. The flag-off event for the Pourakarmika thanksgiving day was celebrated for the seventh consecutive year at the Rajkumar Gajinamane Hall, BBMP Head office, Bangalore. Narayan, the president of the Pourakarmika Union, was present on the occasion. In his speech Narayan said, ”People look down upon Pourakarmikas in the society but an organization like CMCA recognizes the Pourakarmika’s work including health and hygiene. I am really happy about this”. Children…

For many years now, civil society has waged a long fight to get a proper Planning body instituted for Bangalore and other large cities. This is not only essential in order to coordinate different development activities in all sectors, but also required by the Constitution. Now, in responding to a PIL by C N Kumar, the government has put out the draft notification to create this body. Purely institutionally, it is a victory for all of us. JNNURM was supposed to get this done, but that was dodged by packing the Mission with pliable appointments and state governments that cooperated…

Just a few months ago – on 23 February 2013– a fancy, “sky kissing” (ambara chumbana) clock tower, the tallest in the state, was installed with much fanfare at a cost of over Rs 90 lakhs (by a cash-strapped city administration). The fancy clock not only showed the time, it was supposed to change colour for each day of the week - orange for Tuesdays, blue, green etc. Go take a look now – the ‘colour changing’ bit has not lasted even a few months. It remains orange forever. Spend money on a 'colour-changing’ fancy contraption, pay the contractor, and…

I’m sitting at Lalbagh gardens. The sun is already strong but it doesn’t bother me. I sit in the shade of a Tree, listening to the birds. I can’t see them but know they are there somewhere up in those branches. I sense a gentle breeze. I could have been someplace else. But, I am here and I wonder: Why do gardens matter to us? Not all of the Public spaces in the city are what Lalbagh is. So, what is Lalbagh? How did it come about? How much of what Lalbagh is comes from the trees that belong here?…

It’s been nearly 10 months that the Confident Group has stopped work on their incomplete project, Antlia 1, beside NH 207 that leads to Sarjapur, Bengaluru. This project was supposed to have been completed, including all the 60 amenities, by 2010. The builder wanted to withdraw from the maintenance of this complex in October last year and convinced some owners; representatives to take over in a 'financial handover'. Financial handover, according to them was, the owners manage the complex on their own and the builder would refer maintenance personnel on a need basis. These owners’ representatives then called for a…

Report by Prasanna Vynatheya of PNLIT The event 'Raise Your Voice Bengaluru', as I understood it, was to bring those concerned people who would like to participate in their own capacity to make our Karnataka a better place for us and our posterity. The venue was NMKRV College, Jayanagar 3rd Block on Sunday the 27th Oct 2013. The lead person of the organizing group Mr. Rajeev Gowda spoke eloquently and sincerely, so too each and every one of the other seven speakers. The message was loud and clear! People come out and participate as rightful citizens of this nation, demand quality in all…

It is really the small changes, the ones that you see everyday, but don’t quite remember seeing, that seem to change a Street. As one street changes from being a quiet street to being a busy street, somewhere else another street begins its transformation. Every changing street changes its neighbourhood, and every changing neighbourhood changes the city. The small changes are seen everywhere, in almost every city in India. In Bangalore, it’s the Adiga’s lane off Bannerghatta road, in Mumbai, it’s the Hill road in Bandra - streets that are “not the same anymore”. Here, in Bangalore, we have been…