Civic

"In my site the sewage treatment plant (STP) is going to be transferred from the builder to the association soon and we need to know more about STP engineering and maintenance", says Ragupati S, 37, a first-time estate manager at Concorde Sylvan View, a gated community in Electronic City. Estate managers oversee maintenance operations for residential complexes, increasingly being called 'gated communities'. They are usually employees of the owners' associations. Dr Ananth Kodavasal giving participants a tour on the workings of an sewage treatment plant. Pic: Apartment Adda. Ragupati was one among over 40 estate managers who attended a recent…

You will not notice the Iblur Government Primary School unless you are looking for it. Located on the service road of the main Sarjapur Road just before Iblur junction, the school has classes from I to VII standard with 300 students. The students are mostly from Iblur village and are from the economically weaker section. Till very recently, the school had just three classrooms and the classes were conducted in batches to accommodate everyone. We, from Lions club, HSR layout, adopted the school in the year 2007. We started off by building one classroom, improved a few other necessary infrastructures…

Residents of MICO Layout have not been able to use the playground for over a decade now because the seized vehicles have been dumped there by the Police. seized vehicles in BTM IInd stage The Mico layout police station was previously located near the Self Financed Housing Scheme (SFHS) colony in BTM Layout 2nd stage. Due to lack of space within the police station compound, they dumped the seizedvehicles in the neighbouring playground. Though the police station has been moved to 16th Main a few months ago, the vehicles continue to languish at the playground. As per rules, these vehicles…

An Act that entrusts commoners with the authority to question the government and its actions. The only legislation that stipulates a response time of 30 days (48 hours in the case of human rights violations). A fairly inclusive law that was created with the involvement of social workers, ordinary people, non-governmental, community based and grassroots organizations.We learnt this and more during an invigorating session on the "Introduction to Right to Information Act" that lasted three hours and a half (an hour longer than originally planned) and left us hungry for more. Organized by the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) in…

Taking possession of an apartment is so often fraught with its own challenges (late handover, defects within the apartment) for the individual apartment owner, that more often than not building-level issues tend to be ignored.  Further, during the Builder-provided warranty period, occupancy normally tends to be very low, making very few people available for handling building-level issues.  Caveat Emptor: Latin for 'Let the Buyer Beware'. While first-time associations do cover obvious issues (like major defects / incompletion in building construction, basic documentation, handover of maintenance corpus), many other issues are ignored, either due to a lack of awareness or resources…

Record and file everything.  It is essential that the MC (Management committee) formally document and file everything pertaining to the handover.  Many problems, which have their roots in ineffective handovers, crop up only after several years.  During the intervening period, people change - both in the MC / Association as well as the Builder.  Further, vendors' memories are notoriously short when it comes to delivering on promises made.  All important documents should be copied and filed properly - in a logical manner, which allows easy retrieval at a subsequent date.  Originals and copies should be stored separately - e.g. the…

Much before the   much hyped BBMP elections early this year, regular write ups were penned down in the media by a number of residents of H S R Layout on "What are our expectations from the new Corporator?". This was followed up by discussing these very points during the campaigning. Later a copy of these were given to the Corporator when there was an interaction between prospective candidates and residents organised by the Federation at H S R club. Subsequently, after elections, a number of petitions have been given by Federation/ RWAs of HSR Layout. Also there have been discussions…

After Citizen Matters expose on BBMP quietly shutting down the Technical Vigilance Cell's (TVC) call centre last year, very little has happened to remedy the situation. The cell that earlier used to accept complaints from the public directly regarding building violations, now monitors only public works as directed by the Commissioner. But Commissioner Siddaiah told Citizen Matters that he has appointed Technical Advisor B T Mohan Krishna to look into building violations. Complaints that the commissioner receives from the public will be forwarded to Krishna, he says. "He will co-ordinate with the TVC also for this," Siddaiah said. Krishna took…

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 -…