Civic

South Bangalore happenings Metro work, road-widening, underpass construction and new Corporators were the most prominent happenings of Jayanagar, JP Nagar and BTM Layout this year. In June, the Karnataka High Court disposed a writ petition relating to the construction of the station at South End, Jayanagar, Bangalore, giving the project a shot in the arm. Residents of south Bangalore came together to form the Ring Road Property Owner’s Association (RRPOA) to fight against road-widening. They were protesting BBMP’s road-widening plans from Central Silk Board to Mysore Road (14.5 kms). This was one of the first instances of a citizen’s collective…

Residents of the apartment complex L&T South City in Puttenahalli, south Bengaluru,  have got a stay on BDA auctioning the Civic Amenity (CA) site in their complex. The stay order came on November 11. The residents had filed a writ petition in the High Court after the BDA put up a notice on the 2-acre CA site on October 15 inviting tenders to build a shopping complex. There are already cases going on about ownership of the complex - residents had challenged the relinquishment of 12 acres of the land to BDA. BDA board in the CA site publicising the…

A state government-appointed TDR panel headed by Dr A Ravindra released its recommendations last month asking the government to re-look at the Transfer of Developmental Rights (TDR) policy and proposed solutions. There is no formal response from the government yet.For the past few years, roadwidening of adhoc offerings of TDR has caused anguish to many a Bangalorean. It also resulted in the formation of Bengaluru's Ring Road Property Owners Association (RRPOA). The association has opposed roadwidening of the outer ring road in south Bangalore and BBMP subsequently put the project on hold. In the meantime, this and many other projects…

The civic club members of Cambridge School, K R Puram, Children's Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) organised an awareness campaign on Active Citizenship, in a two-day campaign, last month. Children signing a pledge to be active citizens. CMCA campaign at Cambridge School. Pic courtesy: CMCA. The aim of this awareness camp was to spread the message that the time has come for us, the citizens of Bangalore to snap out of our apathy and engage in local governance An awareness stall was set up in the school on the concept that for our city to transition from a ‘bad' deteriorated city to ‘good'…

National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bengaluru, in collaboration with Bangalore Film Society and Just Femme present the inaugural edition of pEtE maatu. The three-day event will comprise an international film festival of short films and documentaries, a digital photo exhibition and panel discussion on the theme Women and the City. There are many things for which a woman steps outside her house in a city -- be it to go to work, or drop a child to school, meet friends, or go grocery shopping. What happens when she steps out? Does she feel safe; what kind of hurdles does…

A few days ago, a small first step was taken by members of Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust towards a garbage-free Puttenahalli. Before Cleanup Pic: Arathi Manay Yajaman There is a spot on Puttenahalli Road, in front of Brigade Millennium Mayflower Block entrance which has been used for dumping. The cleaning up was assisted by the cobbler Chakravarthy who has a shop behind the dump and is also responsible for some of the garbage in the first place and a few others. The rubbish was enough to fill a large sack which was willingly carried away by the garbage truck,…

"Bangalore is not a garden city any more!" is a common refrain that I have been hearing for over 3 years. It is definitely not the cool town that we had visited a few times during summer in the mid 1980's, escaping the scorching Chennai heat. (Apparently, it was still a pleasant place when my husband started his career here over a decade ago). This situation reminds me of the song Ayyayyo Bengaluru lamenting this city's deterioration rendered during the first edition of Namma Jathre (Freedom Festival) in Cubbon Park in 2006. So what are the reasons for this live…

Saaku, Bengaluru's anti-corruption campaign, may not have lived up to the buzz generated in social networking sites over the last week, but the rally of around 800 citizens more than managed to capture the attention of the public on December 11. The event's coordinators had initially expected participation of 1000-2000. The participants, most of them from relatively elite sections of society - included college students, IT professionals, activists and residents from all over the city. Around 800 citizens, including students and IT professionals, participated in the event.Pic: Navya P K The four-day Saaku campaign started on December 8 with the…

It's called Saaku. It has picked up quickly this week and is a mini-rage on twitter as Bengaluru hit Friday weekend night on December 10th. Bangaloreans online are now chirping away to reach asking more and more people to join the Saaku rally against corruption on Saturday morning. Swarathma, one of the city's leading rock bands, has thrown its support for the rally. Pic: Saaku.in Walkers will start from Kanteerava Stadium at 930 and converge to Shantinagar Grounds at 1030 am, next to the Hockey Stadium, for meeting and a rally.Tweeted EndhirenV2dot0, at around 11pm, when this article was getting…

When the tragic incident of a 13-year-old schoolboy falling from the terrace of an apartment block and losing his life made news a fortnight ago, there was one detail in the media reports that epitomises, in a single sentence, the criminal gap between proper city planning and the ground realities of  Bengaluru as it is developing today. It said, "As there was nowhere for him to play, Allan went up to the terrace to play" - and the rest is a tragedy that has already been reported in the press. High-rise apartment blocks have sprouted like rashes all over the…