Civic

13 year old CMCA student stands up for his classmate’s Right to Education! CMCA students of class 8 demand that their Headmaster returns money wrongfully collected from students towards school books. Young CMCA student calls up BBMP helpline number to get garbage in her neighbourhood cleared.These are just few of the noteworthy actions of CMCA junior citizens that were celebrated during SPOORTI 2012 – CMCA’s annual government school launch programme. The programme was on Saturday, Sep 8th at St Joseph’s Indian High School Grounds. It was inaugurated with the unfurling of the 4th pillar of democracy – active citizenship. 2000…

Around 400 students from NSVK (Nehru Smaraka Vidya Kendra) school, Jayanagar, participated in the eye donation awareness walk on August 25th early morning shouting slogans ‘Nethradana, Mahadana,’ (Eye donation is the best of all donations). NSVK school students in the rally. Pic: Abhishek Angad This walk was organised by Nethradhama, a superspeciality eye hospital in Jayanagar 7th block. The walk started from the hospital premises and moved to Yediyur, Kanakapura Road.Renowned people like Thara Anooradha, President, Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, Vijay Kumar, MLA Jayanagar and Dr Manjunath C N, Director, Jayadeva Institute of cardiovascular Sciences and research were present on the…

Living in Bengaluru, a new book for navigating the city was released at Jayanagar’s Prism Book Shop by MLA B N Vijayakumar accompanied by other well known Bangaloreans. This follows the launch of the book at Malleswaram on August 3rd. Jayanagar MLA B N Vijaykumar speaking at the book release at Prism Bookshop. Pic: Abhishek Angad. The guidebook is published by Oorvani Media, which is also the publisher of Citizen Matters, the newsmagazine focused on Bangalore and its neighbourhoods. The book has step-by-step guides, FAQs and information for getting things done in Bangalore. It has chapters devoted to public services…

There they go again!!! – UNITED CIVIC CLUB OF ST. MARKS PUBLIC SCHOOL – this is the new batch of Civic Club Members who have started their activities for the current academic year, 2012-13, as a part of CMCA – Childrens’ Movement for Civic Awareness. United Civic Club student pulling out pamphlet nailed to a tree. Pic courtesy: Ravikala Baliga. Understanding at a very young age that we need to save our trees and respect them individually – the children noticed that the trees are always treated like ‘advertising space!’  It is important for each human being to acknowledge that…

A meeting of lake teams in Bangalore was organised by Arekere Neighbourhood Improvement Trust (ANIT) together with OneBengaluru on 5th Aug 2012. The meeting was well attended by more than 125 people from 20-odd different lake teams including PNLIT trustees and volunteers - Usha, Nupur, Sapana, Vijay, Vivek, Prajna, Vishnu, Siddharth and Mihir.  Usha, Vishnu, Siddharth and Mihir at the meeting Photo: Nupur Jain Directly after the meeting, a team of some 10 people from Kaggadasapura Lake in East Bangalore visited Puttenahalli Lake. They are keen on leveraging our experiences at Puttenahalli Lake to conserve their neighbourhood lake. Below is a…

Shreya Sharma recently planted two saplings at Puttenahalli Lake, to commemorate her seventh birthday.Two saplings planted at Puttenahalli Lake, 28-Jul-2012 Pics: Munish Sharma Shreya's dad Munish Sharma, resident of the JP Nagar neighbourhood Brigade Gardenia Apartments, has "adopted" the saplings for a year. With careful nurturing, the saplings should have grown considerably by Shreya's next birthday. If everyone planted a sapling on her/ his birthday, we would have a billion trees in India every year!⊕

Those familiar with Puttenahalli Lake will know that one end of the lake, towards L&T South City has 100-odd shanty/ semi-pucca/ pucca houses (generally referred to as the encroachment "slum"), relocation pending since the last few years. With human habitation there is garbage, and with no proper garbage collection mechanism in place, this end of the lake has always been messy and very difficult to keep clean. Other neighbourhood people have been adding to the mess by throwing their rubbish at the lake entrance. Now we don't know for how long the residents will live in the embankment but as…

For people like me who have made Bangalore their own ooru in the recent past, it is fascinating to discover that there were once more than 300 lakes that were engineered to connect with each other and serve as water sources for this beautiful city that stands at elevation of 2953 feet. Bangalore Lakes meeting: A glorious past and a promising future-Dr Ravi Ralph CEO, Lake Development Authority (LDA)-Mr Brijesh Kumar Chief Conservator of Forests, BBMP-Dr Ashwin Mahesh, One Bengaluru, Loksatta; Urban Expert-Shri N.S. Mukunda Citizen Action Forum; Abhyudaya-Success stories and lessons learned - group discussion-Sharing best practices10AM to 1PM,…

Drive down any of the roads in the central part of Bangalore and all of them have a river of stinking sewage flowing on one side of it. The breakfast will rise in your throat, as you walk, ride or drive down Richmond Road, Residency Road or Hosur Road. Worst sufferers are the pedestrians including children walking to school, as they are splashed with the foul and dangerous muck, which flies up from the tyres of careless motorists.On Hayes Road, the sewage is bubbling up in resident's gardens and there is a sense of desperation pervading the area. The Bashas…

The High Court has ruled in favour of the citizens in the Agara-sirisi corridor project. The order essentially says ‘hear them out,' to the State and BDA. For the moment, the order comes as relief to thousands of Koramangala residents who have fought a prolonged battle for almost a year and a little too late for the numerous trees that were surreptitiously cut, even before the project formally took off.The Rs 119 crores project at four junctions - Jakkasandra (flyover), Koramangala 80 feet road (underpass), Krupanidhi College (underpass) and St John's hospital-Koramangala 100 feet road junction (flyover and underpass), kicked…