Civic

Every child's first teachers are their parents. And if they work as teachers in real life, that can be an advantage. Jeevitha Lakshmi (15), is a daughter of such parents. Her parents  Vijaya Kumar, 48 and Uma Devi, 42  are both teachers. Kumar is working in R S High School near Madiwala and Uma is working in Eshwari school, Wilson Garden, both private high schools. The family stays in Madivala. Jeevitha has scored high marks in her SSLC Exam. After revaluation she scored 98% in Science, Social Science and English.  When results were first announced, Jeevitha found she had scored…

I posted once about the Monkey Puzzle Tree with its beautiful leaves (go see the huge trees near the Glass House  in Lalbagh, if you can!)and later, I got theMonkey Puzzle Butterfly amongst other things, on a nature trail:A few days ago, it was very nice to see that someone still cares about our Bangalore heritage, and has re-created the Monkey Puzzle architectural detail for their home:Possibly this feature was so called because monkeys used to sit on it...it's also called "Monkey Top".

“Where were you all, madam, at that time?” asked a BBMP official dealing with the city’s infrastructure development, last week. This was not  some rhetorical cross-examination of an accused during a crime investigation (though, as you will presently see, there is an element of crime involved) but something more basic that many of us can be asked or should ask ourselves more often.Residents of a Scientists’ Colony is south Bengaluru  suddenly woke up one recent morning to find that some of their houses, inside the colony had been marked for “road widening”. The road running through the colony was perfectly…

Like minded citizens of Shakambarinagar ward have come together to form a citizens’ forum to address the civic issues of the ward and closely work with the elected representatives as well as civic authorities. The organisation meets every fortnight (Monday) at their office in JP Nagar. Shakambari Nagar Citizen Forum members meeting MLA B N Vijayakumar and Corporator Somashekar at their office. Pic: Raghavendra. Below are some issues pertaining to Shakambari Nagar Ward:-    Installation of ward name boards at all the four boundaries of Shakambari Nagar.-    Installing of street/ Road boards which are broken or defaced.-    Identifying and desilting of…

When is a footpath not a footpath?When it's a death-trap....There is simply no reason why we should have such awful pavements; it's just sheer negligence and an attitude of "don't care".This was taken in J P Nagar 3rd Phase, close to the Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind. If we have such difficulty negotiating our roads and pavements....imagine what it must be like for those without vision.⊕

Assessing fire safety is crucial to any building - residential or commercial. What's important is to be prepared to tackle the fire. Here's a checklist of what you can do in case of a fire emergency and how you can be equipped to fight a fire in your building.What to do in a fire emergencyIn case of a fire, call 101 immediately. Never assume someone else has already done soIn a fire, activate the fire alarm in your building and shout FIRE at the top of your voice to alert others - yelling anything else can mean that others take…

S K Nataraj is Mayor and corporator of Sarakki ward. Even as he plans to visit each and every ward in order to understand their problems, citizens are pointing to issues in his own ward that need attention. Pic: Chetan Boray. Sarakki ward includes 6th phase JP Nagar, a BDA-planned area, which is supposed to have basic facilities available to its residents when compared to revenue sites. But citizens here continue for suffer from inadequate piped water supply. Resident Anand Rao, in his late fifties, says that BWSSB officials point out that the line is at a higher point and…

Last month -- The  Lokayukta resigned. The government deregulated oil prices and bus fares went up immediately, and I tripped and fell at the post office and fractured a bone. These seemingly unconnected events have a common denominator, as you will see.Let’s go from the bottom up -- my fall. I headed for the post office across the road, and was near its entrance when a jagged footpath tile caught my sandals and I crashed on the floor some distance away, flat on my face.Onlookers came running, to help get on my feet and gather my scattered belongings (bag, purse…

Earlier this month (June 5th-7th), a group of NGOs and activists gathered at New York to add inputs on what citizens want, in terms of “progress” and “development”. These inputs will be fed into the UN summit to be held in September 2010 (normally, in such international summits, only VIP voices are heard, not those of  activists-on-the-ground).In fact, this global consultation was strictly for activists’ groups and whoever wanted to add inputs was welcome, there were no small or big voices. Those organisations that could not make it to New York could still send their inputs and suggestions, through a…

The first trains on the Metro are about to run in the next six to nine months, so this is a good time to ensure that a few other steps are taken to make the new infrastructure more effective. This is particularly because the world over, Metro systems are usually not financially viable, and this has to be overcome by some tie-in arrangement in the real estate market, through capital grants from government and through other control measures that benefit the transit system.Bangalore Metro is no different. Over the course of a decade and more, the state has been willing…