Civic

At our apartment complex, 'Mana Sarovar' in Doddanekkundi, we have installed water meters for all individual 32 flats and provided monthly maintenance as per individual water usage.  All the meters have been installed on the terrace. ManaSarovar__Apartment_Water_Meters Earlier we used to buy 3-4 tankers per day with limited supply of water. Water was available for 1.5 hours in the morning, one hour in the afternoon and 1.5 hours at night for almost a year.  But now we have 24 hour water supply but buy only 2 tankers per day. I did some analysis of water usage in my apartment complex. One can see…

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's (BBMP) proposed tender draft for solid waste management (SWM) in the city includes levying a cess for garbage collection. The implementation of the cess has thrown up more questions than answers, leaving citizens wondering about whether the BBMP was serious about the measure.  N S Ramakanth, DC (Revenue), BBMP, confirmed to Citizen Matters that the cess will be collected from April 2011 itself, along with property tax. "There will be a new form for this, its format has been finalised already." Since advance property tax payment is accepted in April only, there is no issue…

After starting to use BMTC buses, one of our federation members, Jayvant Anantpur, wrote a nice article why we should still use BMTC instead of our personal vehicles in Bangalore. Read on... I agree that we should try to use BMTC as much as possible. I have been trying to do that for one year now and have successfully figured out how to commute by BMTC from Bellandur gate to IISc (between Malleshwaram & Yeshwantpur).I won't say the bus rides are very smooth etc but when compared to driving my car or going by auto/taxi, I think going by BMTC…

Citizens Action Forum (CAF), a federation of Residents Welfare Associations (RWA) in Bangalore, held a meeting on Saturday February 19, at the Central College Senate Hall at which three issues were tabled for discussion – the move  by BBMP to hike property tax by 15 per cent, water supply, and  the garbage problem. CAF meeting. From L: M S Mukunda, B N Vijaykumar, Manjunath, Lalithabai, Ashwathnarayana, Venkat Raju and Govindraju. Pic: Meera K. A full house saw representatives of RWA and concerned citizens voice their opinions on these issues to seek responses from ward representatives and MLAs. What remained at…

Citizen Action Forum (CAF), a federation of Residents Welfare Associations in Bangalore, is starting a campaign to highlight what it calls “misplaced priorities of BBMP, BWSSB and the state government” and to propose a plan to resolve critical issues plaguing the city. CAF POSITIONSTAXES: BBMP should not increase property tax rates. It should first widen the tax base and increase the revenues from sources like rental income from BBMP properties, licensing fees, taxes on hoardings etc. It is estimated that only 40% of the properties are paying taxes amounting to Rs 900 Crores. BBMP should also demand 8% of the…

Last Sunday, residents of apartments in Bellandur demonstrated against construction trucks using their road. The tipper trucks that run from behind the RMZ Ecospace (on Outer Ring Road) to Sarjapur Road via Oceanus Triton and Total Mall, are serious health hazard for the residents in and around this route. These trucks raise a lot of dust, that gets spread all over the road, the gardens and homes along the way. In addition to the health hazards, it has deteriorated the condition of the roads on this patch and is a potential cause of road accidents (one fatal accident of a…

Citizens of Sagayapuram (Ward 60) of Bangalore recently prepared their own programme of works for their ward.  They had wanted - among other wishes - community toilets, nursery school renovation and footpaths for 24 lakh rupees, but the BBMP sanctioned 27 lakhs just for street name-boards. This shows the stark lack of community participation in decision-making even 18 years after the passage of the 74th Constitutional  Amendment (74th CAA) or Nagarapalika Act, which  mandated "Power to the People" in urban areas.  Karnataka's Community Participation Bill Amendments that do nothing to strengthen community participation The 74th CAA was to bring in decentralisation, proximity, transparency, accountability…

If a new road in your neighbourhood is desperately needed or the local BBMP contractor is burning waste locally instead of transporting it, or if you want to use your ward's BBMP funds to spruce up a rundown local playground, what will you do? Where will you start? You'll likely talk to your residents association office bearers and then one of them or you directly will try to reach your BBMP ward councillor. But let's face it. There are roughly 25000-50000 residents in a ward. How many such requests will your councillor be able to handle? Besides, councillors have their…

Have you wondered why a BMTC bus is forced through a narrow 9-metre road in Bengaluru? Why entire layouts come up without amenities that they city later has to somehow account for? Plenty of noise is regularly made about lack of ‘proper planning' in Bengaluru city. You need planners who understand how cities work, you need planners who have backgrounds of geography, economics, architecture and urban planning, says Mohan Rao.Pic: Subramaniam Vincent However, it isn't that Bangalore itself lacks qualified planners and architects to work with the city administration. One such planner and 'urban practitioner' as he calls himself is…

Birthdays are always occasions for celebration - and so, as the print edition of Citizen Matters completes two years this week, I am looking back on the stories we have had and shared, and find that a few stand out as particularly worthy of mention. "Two J.P.Nagar-ites help city apartments save lakhs of rupees" The report in the issue dated Jan 15-23 this year, was an important piece of reporting, which no mainstream publication bothered to cover, much less splash as a scoop - despite the fact that newspapers are meant to "inform" the readers about issues relevant to their…