Civic

I very often find that cables (probably TV cable, and perhaps optic fibre cable too) is taken across the tops of buildings, or even strung across roads, with no care or thought of safety or even aesthetics.To illustrate this, I took this snap of one area in Jayanagar, near the Post Office:Do the building owners not mind the huge safety hazard that this poses, and are they not bothered (at least) about how ugly that nest of wires looks?We are mealy-mouthed hypocrites who talk a lot about the beauty of Bangalore and then keep quiet while economic considerations take precedence…

Recently, on 1st July 2008, the High Court of Karnataka declared that personal information of the public authorities cannot be made available through the Right To Inforamtion Act, 2005. The order was a result of a writ petition filed by H E Rajashekarappa, Joint Director (Statistics) at Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Department, at Ambedkar Veedhi, Bangalore. Rajashekarappa filed the case on 30th June 2006. On 17 March 2006, one Narasimha Murthy, retired statistical inspector filed an RTI application with the PIO at the Government Planning and Statistics Department, M S Building, asking for the total assets and liablities of…

Come rains and most roads of the city are flooded. Some roads see potholes and muddy water all over, some lose their asphalt cover and some others are deformed. You may be surprised to know that the BBMP appoints private consultants to repair flood damage on roads with its own engineers. But the roads remain in bad shape even after that.In 2006, the BBMP formed a Flood Damage Control cell to carry out such road works. A total of 26 roads in the city were shortlisted for repairs with a budget of Rs.19 crores. All these road works were awarded…

A key right-to-information question was resolved when the Karanataka High Court on 30 June 2008, declared that registered Co-operative Societies are not public authorities under the RTI Act, 2005. Citing the RTI Act, the High Court said that 'public authority' under this act is a body of self-government established by the appropriate (state legislature, central) government. A non-governmental organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate government is also a 'public authority'. Furthermore, the court noted that while the Co-operative Societies Act and the Karnataka LokAyuktha Act both defined office-bearers of co-operative societies to be 'public…

Did you know that of the innumerable road humps (or speed breakers) in the city, only 282 are authorised by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP)? All the others, according to the BBMP, are unauthorised and do not have any mention in their records. This fact was revealed when BBMP responded to a RTI application regarding the same recently. Most of us are troubled by the road humps we come across every day. It’s a common feeling that some of them are not required at all, while some of them appear to be hastily put up with no concern for…

The Citizens' Action Forum (CAF), a civic action group representing a number of residents' welfare associations in Bangalore, organised a one-day symposium as part of their on-going public dialogues with politicians on 30th August 2008 at Central College. They discussed ways to solve civic problems and debated on two of Bangalore's unsresolved issues: Sakrama and collection of property tax. The programme was structured as panel discussions. Mathew Thomas, general Secretary of CAF made an extensive presentation on ‘Kasturirangan Committee’ (aka Committee on Governance in the Bangalore Metropolitan Region and BBMP, headed by Dr Kasturirangan, ex-chairman of ISRO) for a review…

Everyday, a number of roads get asphalted under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike's (BBMP) road works and a lot more wait to get constructed. It is often observed that soon after these roads are asphalted they degenerate, potholes appear and degradation results. Not many times do we ponder that there ought to be a procedure and specifications for laying roads. Well there is such procedures, and it is available with the BBMP and they are supposed to follow it. M V K Anil Kumar, an RTI activist, filed an application to find out just this. The thought came to his…

I was walking down the Inner Ring Road, from Jayadeva Circle towards Silk Board, and was struck by the difference in the way roads are designed now. No trees, no shade, to make the pedestrians' lot a little easier....but that was less of a problem than the amount of space allocated to walk on. Here's the footpath just past the Jayadeva flyover....If you drive on the new roads of Bangalore, you are likely to be late, but if you try to walk on the new roads of Bangalore, you may be the late pedestrian!⊕

I would like to share my experiences with all of you about how well my Independence Day celebrations went on. It is a tradition my friends and I have followed for many many years, of playing cricket on that day and fighting down to the bone to ensure victory, but what keeps us constantly distracted from the game is the flower show. I live diagonally opposite Lalbagh, the home to the greatest crowd puller on Independence days and Republic days in Bangalore. The main attraction being the flower show which showcases the a wonderful collection of flowers. But this is…

Last week, some "columns" made of plastic (of terracotta look, complete with fake "burnt" patches, with rectangular frames on top for advertisements, suddenly made their appearance on M G Road. All the newspapers picked up on this uglification of the scene, and also remarked on how these ugly things were supposed to be beautifying Bangalore but were actually put there to fetch further revenue for BBMP (which seems to have developed a bottomless thirst for raising cash) through ads in the rectangles. The columns were impeding traffic and Deccan Herald pointed out how one pedestrian had been injured by a…