Civic

Dr Shankara Prasad is one of the leaders of the Sachidananda Nagara Nyayapara Andolana. This group of 120 residents of Sachidananda Nagar layout in Rajarajeshwari Nagar won a hard - fought battle this week to get their khatas without paying bribes. The protests, which went on for several months, resulted in an order by BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah on November 8th to issue khatas to all residents. Pic: Navya P K. 58-year-old Prasad, though from Bangalore has spent nearly three decades traveling around the world, working as a consultant in the chip manufacturing industry. He completed his M Tech from IIT,…

ApartmentAdda, a leading provider of online residential complex management software is holding its second workshop for estate managers on November 18th at Brooke Fields, Bengaluru. Timing: 9.30 AM - 4.30 PM. The first workshop was held on 29th July 2010. There were presentations on sewage treatment plants, complaint Management, experiences of a new estate manager and liabilities of an estate Manager. Pic courtesy: Apartment Adda. The workshop will be a full-day event, and this time the focus is on financial efficiency in a residential association. It will cover areas that an estate manager needs to be the master of -…

Trees being felled or the remains of cut trees have sadly become an increasingly common sight in the garden city of Bangalore nowadays. Some of us have questioned, protested or expressed our indignation in various ways at these appalling and often baseless actions by the government. A few have tried to compensate this loss by planting trees elsewhere after ensuring feasibility. Such indiscriminate tree felling that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) 'authorities' have undertaken irked Vikram Simha, a well known Right to Information (RTI) activist in Bangalore with the Mahiti Hakku Adhyan Kendra (MHAK) and a lover of trees.…

The 60-feet Avenue Road that cuts across the 22-acre Brigade Millennium apartment community has become a matter of major concern for residents. Even though the road was initially supposed to be for the use of residents, it has become a fully public road now. But residents continue to pay for its maintenance through Brigade Enterprises Limited (BEL). Rs 80,000 every month is spent on it from a corpus fund of which nearly 86 % comes from the residents. Guards at the entrance of Avenue Road now do nothing more than collect toll occassionally from a heavy vehicle. Pic: Navya P…

Despite continued protests from residents for over two years, an illegal building in Amar Jyothi layout in Domlur has almost finished construction and is going to be occupied soon. The building located at site no. 371 and 372 along the Koramangala-Domlur Intermediate Ring Road, is in violation of the sanctioned plan from BBMP as well as many building bye-laws. An outlet of the sanitary ware major Roca is to open here soon. Trouble started two years ago, just as the construction began. Residents nearby complained that the setbacks of the building were insufficient. The building is supposed to have setback…

Almost every other week, outside my office on Sarjapur Road, I see an elderly gentleman stopping by a tree in the morning, to relieve himself.  A Nirmala Shauchalaya stands barely 100 metres away from this recipient tree. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget ambitiously speaks about a lot that the city needs - storm water drains, flyovers, underpasses, parks, playgrounds - so on and so forth. A lot of criticism has gone the way of the budget, pooh-poohing the amount of loans that the corporation is planning to take and slamming the massive revenue projections. Plans have been made…

p>In a series on environment-friendly initiatives, Citizen Matters introduces you to individuals and communities who are working hard to encourage sensible disposal of garbage. The first of the series takes you through the gates of an apartment complex in the southern part of the city, in JP Nagar. One block, Mayflower, in Brigade Millenium, hit upon the idea way back in 2008, to do something about the waste that was being generated. The drive, however, didn't convince all the residents. Only 30 out of 220 households are currently segregating their waste, while remaining still depend entirely on the BBMP garbage…

Around the time that the BBMP was deciding to include the menace of stray dogs in its agenda, on August 31st, 10-year-old Sameer was waiting for an injection in the series he has had to take, after being bitten badly by a dog outside his home in Jayanagar 4th T block. In the days since hearing about his injury, I have been counting dogs on our city streets, and am horrified that in a metropolis boasting about reaching for "world class status" we have  1.4 lakh strays (at last count - 2009) and  21,900 dog bite cases  (officially registered) in…

Piles of garbage lie unattended. Passers-by cringe as they walk past, quickly crossing over to the other side of the road. The carefree add to the mess, urinating right there in the open. This has been the scene for the past 15 years, outside the Air Force Camp School on Wind Tunnel Road  in Murugeshpalya in the Old Airport Road area. The school students have to endure this everyday. Repeated complaints by school authorities and residents of the area have proved futile. BBMP garbage collection contractors have been dumping garbage here, outside the Air Force Camp School, in Murugeshpalya. Pic:…

Has BBMP learnt a lesson or two from the Sampige Road-Malleswaram mess?  Why on earth does the BBMP keep sanctioning multi-storeyed apartment complexes flouting building Bye-laws/CDP norms?  We have a crowded narrow road of 9.5m wide in Ward No. 179 (Shakambarinagar) in JP Nagar Ist Phase.  The road has quite a few bottlenecks and the Traffic Police have barred entry of heavy traffic vehicles from 46th cross Jayanagar (Inner Ring Road) and from Indira Gandhi Circle on the other end.  Recently BBMP has sanctioned 250 high-end apartment buildings on an 8 acre land adjoining this narrow road.  The Comprehensive Development…