Civic

When I was 5 I had requested my father (ofcourse through Home Minister, my mom) for a bicycle. My father said NO with a reason 'I may end up in unnecessary accidents'.I did fasting for 1 full day (I know Gandhian way when I was 5 ;-) ) for pressurizing my father to buy me a bi-cycle. He buckled at the end of the day and new bicycle was at home next day evening. I donno the cost of the bicycle at that time but it was newly introduce Geared one by BSA.I had bicycle (2nd one) till I completed…

Amrendra Kumar, a twenty nine year old Ph.D student of Public Policy at IIM Bangalore stunned the audience at a conference on "Integrated Solid Waste Management- Waste Generated v/s Managed" at Municipalika 2011 by claiming that within a year he could make India as clean as Switzerland.  A native of Patna, Bihar, Amrendra completed an integrated degree in Physics from IIT-Kanpur and is been pursuing his Ph.D at IIM-B. Branding himself a "missionary", he wants to clean up India through his organisation Clean Credit, which believes that "Cash is Trash". Amrendra lays out his plans for a clean India in…

The ninth edition of 'Municipalika', a three-day conference and exhibition on urban governance took place from 27 to 29 January at Palace Grounds. This is the first time Municipalika was held in Bengaluru. It saw more than 1200 delegates, 120 speakers from across the nation converging to share best practices in urban governance. Mayors of different towns and cities and delegates at the Municipalika. Pic: Yograj S Mudalgi Municipal Commissioners, Mayors, urban planners, policy makers and members of Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) from different towns and cities participated in the conferences organised by the Good Governance India Foundation (GGIF). The…

Residents of Dollar Scheme layout in BTM 1st stage in south Bengaluru, one of whom is a BBMP employee, have won a major case against parking nusiance in the area. BBMP's garbage contractors were parking vehicles along the roads in their layout. Eleven residents of 32nd and 33rd main in the layout had filed a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) in the High Court in June 2010, asking BBMP and the police department to prevent trucks from being parked in the area. In early January, the court ordered the BBMP to take action within two months to solve the issue. A…

BDA is considering building a new public road on the periphery of L&T South City apartment complex instead of opening up the road within the complex. Apartment residents are breathing a sigh of relief. Map showing the existing road within the complex and the proposed new road on the periphery The internal 60-feet road was part of the area that the builder (L&T) and the owner of the land had previously relinquished to the BDA. Residents are contesting the relinquishment in the court, saying that it was done without their knowledge. Read our original story on this here.  After continued…

If you are living in gated community - be it apartments or a layout with independent homes- did you know that your builder would have had to relinquish the parks (you paid for) to get the layout plan sanctioned?  Bengaluru's townplanning rulebook says apartment complexes with an area more that 20,000 square metres must relinquish parks to public. Likewise layouts - whether ‘gated' or not - have to relinquish parks to the public too. While some layouts have relinquished albeit reluctantly, some have sued the BDA for it and some are clueless about a rule like this. Authorities on the…

They persisted with what is right and have saved scores of Bengaluru's apartment associations lakhs of rupees in 2011. Arathi Manay Yajaman, 40, and O P Ramaswamy, 64, of JP Nagar challenged BESCOM's levy of penalties on their apartment complex and, despite being pushed around initially, won their case. BESCOM had penalised their apartment complex in August last year for not taking into account the building's fire safety equipment (pumps) as part of sanctioned electrical load. On January 12th, the Brigade Millennium Mayflower block residents association, represented by Arathi, received a letter from BESCOM, which in effect said BESCOM was…

I have heard of plugged in electrical  gadgets and equipment, but it is now "plugged in humans" - wherever on goes, one sees men and women, girls and boys, all with wires dangling from their ears  and fiddling with buttons on a mobile, and oblivious to the world around them. Listening to music presumably, while riding on a bus, which is okay I guess.  Or while driving a two or four wheeler - not okay at all - studies have shown that being on the cell phone or listening to music through an ear phone causes distraction from the road…

To increase public awareness on using cycles, Bangalore's Ride A Cycle Foundation (RAC-F), an NGO, has announced a host of competitions for students from 7th to 10th Standard. The following are the competitions:1. Essay Writing Competition:Topic :Me and My Bicycle.2. Letter Writing Competition:Topic : A letter to your parent asking him to bicycle along with you to school once in a week. 3. Drawing Competition: Theme 1: Share the road with cycles.Theme 2: Cycle Friendly cities / Children friendly cities.1st Prize : Hercules Bicycle + Rs.20002nd Prize : Hercules Bicycle + Rs.15003rd Prize : Rs.35003 Consolation PrizesThe entries need to…

In 2000, it was still BMP managing 100 wards. How have things shaped up since then? The quiet bean town became the centre of world's attention practically overnight and since then the city's infrastructure is only been playing catch up. Hasty road-widenings with arbitrary plans of TDRs, relocation of slums without a though tto the urban poor's basic needs, large-scale corruption by local civic bodies in land allocation and building rights are all in the recent memory. In 2000, it was still BMP managing 100 wards and Prema Cariappa was the Mayor. Ward Committees existed briefly, but were not very…