Civic

It was my turn recently to drop my children off at the school's appointed bus stop on Hennur Main Road here in Bangalore. I anxiously navigated my way along the road and across it clasping tiny hands, muttering continuous warning to watch out for traffic in the early morning even, and to stop kicking up mud in my face. Having deposited my sons on a mound of concrete, I surveyed the scene. A man was walking a dog. My son pointed to him excitedly and said "There he is again. He's got only one dog today." I shared in their…

The residents’ associations of about 15 apartments of Somasundarapalya and Haralukunte, down HSR 27th Main Road have joined together to create a HSR-x Federation to collectively solve their problems and improve their neighbourhood. On Saturday, March 3rd, the group invited Bommanahalli MLA, Satish Reddy and HSR Corporator Latha Narasimhamurthy. Also present were Ravi Reddy, HSR ward BJP president for Bangalore), Syed Salam, businessman, husband of Mangammapalya ward Corporator Syed Haseena Taj and BBMP officials. Satish Reddy, Ravi Reddy and Latha Narasimhamurthy at citizen-MLA meeting, HSR Layout extensions. Pic: Satvik Koushik Virat Gohil, from Sai Poorna Paradise shared the problems of…

Residents of Golden Blossom apartment in Kadugodi, Bengaluru, have gone to court against the builder for not providing promised facilities on time. In their petition to the state Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, residents say that Golden Gate Properties Ltd (GGPL) had promised them about 35 facilities such as club houses, sports complexes, super market etc., but has not delivered most of these. They also claim that quality of construction of existing facilities is poor. Golden Blossom apartment houses around 500 families. Pic: Ajiyos Yohannan Golden Blossom Apartment Owners Association (GBAOA) filed the complaint in December. Hearings are on at Consumer…

RWAs and citizens' groups that fight public causes in court may soon get a helping hand. Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar (Independent) has offered to bear 50% costs of PILs filed in Bangalore and the state, through the Namma Bengaluru foundation. He first announced this on Twitter. Rajeev Chandrasekhar was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006. Pic: Subramaniam Vincent. Chandrasekhar's decision comes on the back of the Karnataka High Court's verdict three weeks ago on the city'sComprehensive Development Plan (CDP). In a PIL, citizens' groups had challenged a provision in the current CDP (2005-2015) that allowed commercialisation of residential…

I agree that a certain latitude can be given in cars' number plates, but surely, like in the instance here: When the licence no. can be misinterpreted and misread, it must be illegal? I think we need guidelines clearly spelt out by the Bangalore Traffic Police, about what is permissible in number plates. ⊕

BDA started work on Agara-Sirsi Circle signal-free corridor project last year. Work for grade separators was initiated in four Koramangala junctions - Jakkasandra, Koramangala 80 feet road, Krupanidhi College and Koramangala Water Tank. But residents in the area pointed out flaws in the project and managed to get the work stopped temporarily. Nitin Seshadri, a resident, writes... We were first informed in early September about the massive projects planned along Sarjapur road. Citizens' initial reaction was stoic. The typical reaction is exemplified by an email which declared: "let us do what we can to be as patient as possible". In mid-September, we…

Back in the early 1980s, against the advice of our friends and relatives in Bangalore, we moved to Yelahanka Satellite Town in the hope of living in peace, fed up of Bangalore's pollution. We compromised a lot for this, putting up with the poor construction quality of KHB, lack of some basic facilities, and distance from city's old airport and culture hubs. Many trees were cut down to accommodate this BBMP office in Yelahanka Satellite Town 1st phase Pic: Sudha Narasimhachar But we were happy the way our layout was planned with lovely parks, and amenities like bus stands, shopping…

In the Sankey road widening case, the High Court ruled in favour of BBMP on Wednesday, November 30th. BBMP's contention that it had the authority to cut off scores of old growth trees on Sankey Road was upheld.The petitioners - five individuals and residents' associationMalleswaram Swabhimana Initiative - had argued that BDA had not indicated widening of the road in its draft Revised Master Plan 2015 (RMP) and hence public had no chance to object to the widening. BDA's lawyers however argued that widening of the road to 30 metres was indicated in the 1984 and 1995 master plans and…

Over the last few years, Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) have become a force to reckon in the city. Bangaloreans have been uniting through their RWAs to speak out not just about local issues like civic amenities and khata issues, but also for macro level policy reforms.But this also seems to have made RWAs fresh targets for politicians. RWAs are supposed to be independent and not have political affiliations. But RWA representatives across the city are raising concerns about the increasing control of local elected representatives – corporators, ward secretaries and MLAs – over RWAs. They say that some representatives have…

A trash dump that was earlier in the Mini Forest area was shifted, some time ago, to the compound wall of Casa Ansal Apartments, on the road perpendicular to Bannerghatta Road: In spite of repeated requests from the residents of the apartment, trash continues to be dumped there. The number of rodents in the area has proliferated, and there are serious issues of hygiene as a result. Can BBMP please shift the trash dump back to the old location, where it was not directly in front of any residential building, and clean up this awful, stinking mess? ⊕