Civic

It is not easy to realise this - but this little fun thing called cycling can reduce congestion on city roads by as much as 15-20%. This reduction is possible without any large scale infrastructure investments. All we need is a little behaviour change all around the city. The reduction in congestion can come in these three significant ways: Increased reach of public transportation through First and Last Mile adoption Increasing usage of cycling for short distance commutes Cycling for local shopping and errand runs First and Last Mile adoption Improving adoption of cycling will have huge benefits for public…

On a sunny Sunday, members of the Bruhat Whitefield Residential Community Association stepped out on to the busy State Highway (SH) 35. Instead of watching a movie and spending time with their family, here they were, rolling their sleeves up and monitoring a road work. Road work? Yes. Anyone who travels on the SH 35, that goes from Kadugodi to Hosakote would know the status of the road. The heavy rains during the last week of September unleashed havoc on this already spoilt road. Volunteers of BWRCA monitoring the road work. Pic: Anantharaman Ramasamy SH 35 is one of the…

Residents and representatives of many apartment communities understood the technicalities and exchanged ideas at the workshop. Pic: Krishanu Mukherjee A workshop on 'Managing Public Money' was conducted for Treasurers of Apartment and Villa Complexes in Bangalore on October 5, Saturday. The Workshop conducted by ApartmentADDA - the Online Software for Society Accounting, attracted participation from over 40 Apartment & Villa Complexes, who utilised this platform to share challenges and best practices used by treasurers who manage funds to the tune of multiple crores in modern apartment complexes. The workshop keynote was an inspiring speech from R K Misra, a successful…

Neutralizers like baking soda are added to milk to make it last longer, which might turn harmful in the long run. Pic: Shree D N Do you ever bother about the quality of milk you consume every day in various forms? If not, be careful. Six out of eight major brands among the milk sold in Bengaluru have been proved to be of substandard quality. During a BBMP council meeting held on September 30, 2013, Corporator S Harish submitted an astounding report on the eight milk brands distributed in the city. However buyers of Nandini (a product of Karnataka Milk…

In the past, people lived in small, isolated communities where artisans and farmers bartered goods and services among themselves. Distribution was limited to how far people could walk, and advertising to how loud they could shout. Today, things are different. Our ways of communicating have taken new forms. As you go through the City, you see advertisements painted on walls, posters of election campaigns, hoardings that hide heritage buildings or that become facades of contemporary buildings. The city has become our canvas for communication. Signages, messages and markers We could categorise these ways of communication into Signage, Messages and Markers.…

The Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC) has launched a new initiative to improve the quality of BBMP corporators, by identifying capable individuals interested in contesting BBMP elections, and train and support their joining public service. Christened B.CLIP (BPAC Civic Leadership Incubator Program), it is designed to equip candidates with skills in public policy analysis, municipal administration, political landscape and election campaign dynamics. The project is expected to throw up candidates that BPAC and other civil society organisations can endorse for the future Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw speaking at a press conference, launching BCLIP programme. Mohandas…

Nearly 100% segregation and separate collection is now happening through the BBMP in the area covering 850 individual homes in Chunchaghatta. This transformation has been possible in just three weeks! This write up is intended to share the story of how this happened. When Bhaskar and I decided to initiate action towards getting residents to segregate waste in one part of Ward No. 195, we did not anticipate the amount of time it would take, the methods which would work best or the challenges that lay in store for us. We just got started with a madness to do whatever…

In the past, the making of urban form in an Indian city like Bangalore was an outcome of the spontaneous growth of a settlement. The city had winding streets that were primarily for people and not for the automobile. There has been a tremendous change in the economic life of the city and in the present times the experience of the city lies in its high-rise buildings, its flyovers and its high speed traffic. Every piece of architecture in the city strives for its own individuality and its own identity. Today, a street is defined by high compound walls that…

What would be possible if nothing came in our way of doing what we wanted? What if we dedicated our complete self, awake, asleep and in dreams, to work? What if we went all out and dived headlong into solving issues, with a bullheadedness and madness affordable only by those who are completely free? What then, would be possible? This is what got Bhaskar and I to start our initiative, Community Matters. Chunchaghatta neighbourhood. Pic: Sinu Joseph We started six weeks ago with little idea of what we should do, but being very clear of what we should NOT do.…

Almost all of us own a private vehicle, which means that we also visit petrol bunks frequently. But how many of us are aware of the fraudulent practices happening at these bunks? And how many of us are able to take any action against them?  A couple of months ago, I encountered a situation where I asked for Rs.500 worth of petrol, but got petrol worth Rs.200 instead. On questioning the employee, he said he had not heard it well and gave me petrol worth another Rs.300. On switching on the ignition, I noticed that my indicator pointed well below…