Civic

Her eyes well-up as she speaks about the notice she received from the Karnataka Forest Department dated September 1st 2009, informing her that her house is illegal as it is on forest land. She was to appear in court on September 14th with all her property documents, as per the notice. Forty-year-old Baby Saroja is a resident of the Rajiv Gandhi Nagar Slum in Devasandra, Krishnarajapuram Hobli, of East Bengaluru. This area falls under Ward No. 55 - Devasandra*. The slum is crammed with tiny houses – mould, thatched and tiled roofs can be found, and water flows through the…

When Shivaprasad Krishnan returns from work to his apartment in JP Nagar III Phase at night, many times after 8 PM, traffic piles up on his residential street, 1st Main Road, he says, because of contract cabs and buses bringing and fetching Infoys BPO employees. As a result, driving the last stretch to his apartment’s entrance has become painful. Krishnan lives in the Casa Ansal apartment complex, and one of its two entrances is located on 1st Main Road just a little past the Infosys building. Traffic piling up at 9 PM. Pic: Raghavendra When Citizen Matters checked on the…

In my locality, Sadashivnagar, BBMP has suddenly started concreting of pavements. This would normally be a laudable activity, but  for these problems:1. The pavements are not used by pedestrians at all. The streets in the locality have sparse vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Pedestrians walk on the edge of the road comfortably. The picture below shows one such street at peak traffic time of 5:30 PM. So concreted pavements are unnecessary in this locality.2. Concrete pavements are not only unnecessary, they are actively harmful. Concrete and tar are the chief causes of a phenomenon called Urban Heat Island - the city…

We look at them, we dont care a damn. We drive past them, we dont wait for them to cross; We pay them, but we dont treat them equally.This is the pourakarmikas Working for us everyday, Regardless of their health, nor the weather that day.They clean our surroundings, When they don’t clean theirs.To see them smiling, a rare occasion To make them smile, even more a rarity But the cost, nothing at all Doing this, makes a world of a difference...                                                    Raunak Dembla                                                    St. Joseph's Indian High School, Gopalkrishna, Engineer-in-Chief, BBMP, today flagged off the week-long ‘Pourakarmika Thank…

Since we believe ...Love comes in all shapes and sizes...and love definitely cannot be bought but can be adopted!!.........How??Find out your self by visiting CUPA Shelter on Oct ,2nd 2009- PET ADOPTION DAY!!!Come lets share and celebrate the everlasting bond between animals and humans.Please spread the word amongst your friends and family, who are looking out to adopt pets ,to come to CUPA shelter on this day to adopt.Venue: KVAFSU-CUPA Animal ShelterVeterinary College Campus,HebbalBangalore - 560 024Tel: 9845366209, 080-22947300 / 22947301 / 22947307Fax: 91-080-22293771Timings : 1000 - 1700You can visit their profiles in CUPA's bloghttp://bloggers-bark.blogspot.com/search/label/Pets%20for%20Adoptionshttp://bloggers-bark.blogspot.com/Please help us to spread the…

A Coalition of various Civil Society Organizations in Bangalore has been organizing a Press Conference on the last Thursday of every month since May 2009 in Bangalore.  The purpose of this press conference is to bring before the press, the success stories of the use of Right to Information Act, 2005 in bringing justice to the public.We here by present you TWO RTI success stories in today’s press conference.Case-1Dr.Jagadish Sanganal is working as Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Veterinary College, Bangalore. Prior to this Dr.Jagadish was working as Veterinary Officer in the Department of Animal Husbandary, Government of Karnataka during…

Here’s a quiz : What does a lamppost remind you of ? Light ? Nah, try again.... Got it – a dog raising its leg against the base? Yup, that’s it. But what has Bengaluru to do with lampposts? Look for yourself – along many roads, at the base of each lamppost, lies a heap of rubble or trash, shored up in a cone shape. I counted seven along just one  stretch of some 200 metres (down 27th Cross, leading from the Jayanagar shopping complex towards Kanakapura Road). Bricks, chunks of concrete, mud scraped up from the roadside, assorted rubbish…

Environment Support Group is organising a workshop on ‘Understanding therole and the importance of Wetlands in Urban spaces.' The workshop will beheld on 26th September 2009 at the MariGowda Hall in Lal Bagh.The various sessions are as follows: Historical view of lakes in Bangalore Current status of Lakes in Bangalore Criticality of lakes for water security in Bangalore Urban Lakes as functional eco-systems Legal and Policy frameworks that govern lakesThe workshop aims to bring together Decision makers, Media, NGOs, Teachers,Students and the general public.. You are also invited to use our workshop as an opportunity to display yourphoto-exhibits, charts, models,…

A group of 12 people, in their mid-twenties to early-thirties cleared garbage in several localities in south Bengaluru as part of the citizen-launched “Clean Bengaluru campaign” on August 15th. Thousands of individuals from around the city had signed up in the preceding weeks on the website cleanbengaluru.com, and some NGOs joined the cause as well. Representing Youth for Seva (YFS), one such NGO, the cleaning drive for the south zone started at 7 am from Hoskerehalli, near PESIT College. They moved on through Banashankari, Basavanagudi, JP Nagar, Jayanagar, BTM Layout and concluded at HSR Layout. Coordinating the drive was Vikshut…

The Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media (IIJNM) organised a Right To Information (RTI) workshop, ‘State of the RTI’,  on 14th August, at Alliance Francaise de Bangalore.Guest speaker, Dr Shekhar Singh of the National Coalition for People’s Right to Information talked about safeguarding RTI and described how the law was drafted to catch corrupt officials in government departments. He presented the findings of a recent, nationwide survey conducted by his group. The survey tested the knowledge and use of the RTI by more than 35,000 citizens across 10 states. The survey found out that more than 800 RTI requests…