Civic

Trees are as much a part of urban infrastructure and planning as roads and buildings, and most town and country planning acts worldwide include well thought-out provisions to nurture and protect trees. But Bangalore had clearly not been in sync, as was evident from the conclusions at a recent meeting of the Environment Support Group (ESG) on the 26th of January, 2013.The meeting included people from various backgrounds - students, professionals, civic representatives and had been convened with a view to seeking public opinion and consent to amend the KPTA (Karnataka Tree Preservation Act, 1976). Among those attending were D…

Anyone watching the EWS evictions in Ejipura is bound to feel heartbroken for the victims. But this is a tragedy that need not have arisen at all. We allow these problems to build up right in front of our eyes, knowing fully well that they will blow up one day. That has to stop. It is not easy, and it is requires long, dedicated attention to a STRATEGY of fixing the housing problem. There is simply no other way.Here's my letter to the CM today, asking him to put such a strategy in place, starting with the Budget he wants…

"BBMP wards are becoming unmanageable with a single commissioner and resources thinly divided," said Dr A Ravindra, Former Chief Secretary and Urban Affairs Advisor to the Chief Minister, Karnataka. He was delivering the key-note address at a seminar on ‘Reorganizing Bangalore into two or more Municipal Corporations'. The panelists at the seminar. Pic: Shamala Kittane The seminar was organised by the Indian Institute of Public Administration, Bangalore on January 19th and was attended by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, K. Dharmarajan (Chairman of Committee of Experts constituted by Govt. of Delhi to draft a new Delhi Municipal Corporation Law), D Venkatesh…

"We've waited 16 years and it's with several attempts that we've been allotted the site. We've also also availed of bank loans for construction of houses and have been regularly paying property taxes to BDA", was an appeal made by a plot owner to the then chief minister B S Yeddyurappa. This appeal was made by a number of BDA site allottees in December 2010, requesting Yeddyurappa to cancel denotification of the land on which their sites stood, in JP Nagar VIII phase.Click here to see the map Bangaloreans swear by BDA sites and it would not be an exaggeration…

What can we do to make sure the kind of tragedy that we are witnessing in Ejipura does not come back to haunt us again and again? Nothing short of a comprehensive review of the housing market will suffice, because there is a fundamental problem - the cost of land is so high that too many people are priced out of home-buying. Here are some things we can explore to overcome that.1. Can the impact of 'land value' in housing projects be reduced?The biggest stumbling block in cities is the scarcity of good quality land. As a result, land prices are…

Stack three matchboxes, and they'll stay stable. Add a dozen more on top, and the pile will topple. Perhaps this ‘tipping point' is what we as a society have now reached, as we begin a new year, where our responses are shaking up apathetic administrators.Slowly, but surely, and with increasing frequency, we are hearing of action by individuals or small groups, raising protests and making a difference. A few such initiatives in namma ooru are worth taking note of.Last month, the High Court ordered a review of BBMP's record of granting permission for commercial buildings in residential areas. It took…

In the last few years, quite a few individual residents in Bangalore have installed solar panels on their rooftops, that produce electricity to power their homes. A small number of these people have also connected their solar systems to the BESCOM grid and there are many others who would like to so too.What is Solar Power?Photovoltaic (PV) panels are ones in which the main operating elements are semiconductor materials like Silicon. When sunlight strikes these panels, electric power output is created which is Direct Current (DC power), like that of a battery. To run home electric equipments, one option would…

It was 10am in the morning. A torrent of unbearably loud music got me up on my feet out on the road. I saw many loudspeakers that had been installed overnight, from Nagasandra circle to Thyagarajanagar, all along the main road. Sound should not be audible beyond 200 feet, says the law. Pic: Shamala Kittane. Evidently, a nearby temple had decided to celebrate ‘Annamma Devi Festival' - a borrowed tradition from a village but now out of context and place. A local JD (S) politician, Adisheshaiah, however decided to keep the tradition going. The festive season in Bangalore begins in…

A portable, comfortable work-surface for underprivileged kids. An alternate short distance public transport. These were among the entires that broke new ground at the National Student Challenge (NSC) 2012 organized by the Bangalore based Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) on 5th and 6th December. NSC is an all India annual challenge that aims to involve the youth of the nation in tackling issues related to India's urbanisation. Launched in July this year, NSC 2012 falls under the broader banner of Transform Urban India, an initiative that seeks to engage practitioners, policy makers, academicians and students working for urban development.…

Earlier in December, the Karnataka High Court issued a judgment saying dogs deemed a menace or seen to cause nuisance can be exterminated by Bangalore authorities whether or not there is evidence of their having mauled or bitten children or adults. An independent dog with collar companion to indigent humans. Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice B V Nagarathna failed to define the terms "menace" and "nuisance". Bangalore-based voluntary organisation, Voice of Stray Dogs, has made a detailed assessment of the judgment. The lives of the independent dogs in Karnataka's capital would thus depend on arbitrary definitions that may be…