Civic

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…

Adjectives like stinky, smelly, dirty, unhygienic and unbearable suit the status of Bangalore’s public toilets the most. And that is not all. Woes of city’s public toiletsSavithamma, a domestic worker working in the residential areas of BTM layout and Jayanagar, says, “I travel from Gangenahalli (north Bangalore) everyday and come here to work. It takes more than two hours everyday and sometimes during rains, I feel the need to relieve myself but there is no place to go.” Locked doors, severe stench and sometimes, even men, welcome women in public toilets. Pic: Ankita Mehta She adds that she holds her…

PNLIT has been adjudged the Green Star 1st Runner-Up of the People's Green Award at the TCS World 10K Bangalore 2012! The winners were announced at a crowded press conference at ITC Windsor Manor last evening. Prasanna, Usha and Nupur received the award from Kannada actor Mr. Puneet Rajkumar and Mr. Atul Ballal of ITC Windsor Manor.  Prasanna K. Vynatheya, Usha Rajagopalan and Nupur Jain of PNLIT The TCS World 10K which was held on 27th May had launched the People's Green Awards as "a platform to admire and acknowledge people who share this dream to make earth greener and better place to live in."…

Citizens who participated in a discussion organised by CIVIC Bangalore today vehemently called for an effective mechanism for proper implementation of the Master Plan of BDA.  The discussion was held  in the light of BDA calling for inputs from citizens to its proposed Revised Master Plan (RMP) for 2035.   P S S Thomas, retired IAS officer and former chairman of the Advisory Committee on RMP 2015, who made the opening remarks, stressed the need for citizens to be involved at all stages of the planning process and not merely at the final draft stage.  All 30 sister organisations, such as BWSSB, BESCOM, BMTC, etc., also…

Bangaloreans don’t need to look to Cauvery for augmenting water supply, the solution to the Bangalore's water problem remains in treating sewage water. A report by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says that around 60% of sewage water in Bengaluru remains untreated. It states that the city has 14 Sewage Treatment Plants with a capacity to treat 721 Million Litres per Day(MLD) but only 302 MLD gets treated. This report titled ‘Excreta Matters’ was released by Sunita Narain- CSE director-general in Bengaluru on June 28th. The report analysed water-sewage situation in 71-cities across India, including Bengaluru.    Sunita suggests…

On June 24th, the Bannerghatta Road Neighbourhood Association (BANA) organised "Connect", a knowledge sharing seminar at Purva Panorama Apartments at Bannerghata Road.  BANA is a federation formed by a group of RWAs of apartments and layouts in and around on Bannerghatta Road. The forum will be used to resolve common issues and create a strong local community. The founding members include resident associations of L&T South City, Purva Panorama, South Avenue Layout, Pride Regalia, Ajmera Green Acres, Vithola Apartments, Nandi Park, Mantri Woodlands, Esteem Enclave etc. BANA office bearers at the meeting. Prem Sarkar, Shankar Bharadwaj, Kedar Nayak, Vivek Baliga.…

"Mamma, why is India like this? No other country we've been to is like this." And he's been to Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Australia and Egypt.This was my 11-year old lamenting as we walked on the footpath on one of our Bangalore roads. We encountered numerous obstacles on the way - mounds of mud and rubble, poo, burnt leaves, a broken commode, packets of old clothes, stinking garbage, fighting dogs, a pani-puri cart and its customers, an old man stretching his hands out for alms, a man relieving himself at the 'footpath urinal'. Some places had gaping holes filled with…

To the casual observer, it may appear that Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) in the city often work in silos; they are not often effective and find it tough to tackle larger issues. This may even be true. However, over the past decade, Bangalore has been seeing more residents’ activism. Together, they tell a story of change. For instance, more RWAs are now teaming up to form federations. The newest kid on the block is Bannerghatta Road Neighbourhoods Association or BANA. Emerging networks In the newer gated communities and apartments, the owners associations are networked well and reach out to their…

MLA Satish Reddy (Bommanahalli Constituency) presided over a meeting of all office bearers of Residents Welfare Associations (RWA) and the Federation of HSR Layout on June 4, Monday, to discuss infrastructural and other issues. Concerned Engineers responded to questions from the RWAs, closely monitored by the MLA. Perhaps for the first time, we were happy to see the elected representatives, all the concerned engineers and staff of BBMP, BDA and officials from Police Department, present under one roof in such a review meeting alongside representatives of RWAs. The meeting lasted over two hours and was conducted with utmost seriousness. The…