Civic

On 30th May 2009, a coalition of various Civil Society Organizations (CSO's) in Bangalore launched a Right to Information (RTI) clinic between 2.00 PM and 4.00 PM in Cubbon Park (opposite the Bangalore Press Club entrance). Held at the same time and location on the last Saturday every successive month, this initiative will complete a year on May-29-2010. The primary objective of these free entry sessions is to share success stories in using the RTI Act for public benefit. Nearly four hundred persons have approached the CSO's through the clinics and elsewhere. This is encouraging everyone involved to continue spreading…

In the times when there is general apathy amongst citizens towards issues like lack of civic amenities, environmental degeneration, etc, Bangalore has seen a rise in the number of active Residents' Welfare Associations (RWAs) in different parts of the town.One such RWA is Uthkarsh, in LB Shastri Nagar. Their vision is to make the residents of LB Shastri Nagar proud to live in the locality. With a vision like this, the association takes up work in various areas to - influence and improve the state of the civic amenities, increase the participation of the residents in the civic administration, promote…

In May last year, TS Rajeevalochanam, 80 and his wife Susheela,70, who are residents of Jayanagar 8th block were returning home from their evening walk. They had gone to the HOPCOMS shop at Kanakapura road junction. Suddenly a speeding car, trying to catch the green signal, hit another vehicle and the old couple. Susheela lost consciousness and lay on the road profusely bleeding from her nose, head and mouth while Rajeevalochanam's ankle was hurt. The woman car driver whose car hit the couple accompanied them to the hospital. They were taken to the nearby JBS hospital by a few people…

The BBMP has been promoting its own engineers to higher positions in the town planning department, violating a government order that says all town planning posts in the city have to be filled by qualified officials from the state government's Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP). The state government's Department of Town and Country Planning controls appointments to BBMP town planning functions. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal. Take the case of Ravindranath, Joint Director of Town Planning at the BBMP. As per a state government order, Ravindranath has been transferred to the town planning department in Magadi (under the jurisdiction of…

In what may perhaps rank as the first budget proposal of its kind, Citizen's Voluntary Initiative of the City (CIVIC) in association Jago  submitted a Participatory Budget Proposal of Sagayapuram (ward number 60) to B  Palaniammal, the councillor of the ward, in an event held on Friday, May 7th.The budget proposal is for the year 2010-11 The meet was held at  Alphonsus High School Hall on Davis Road from 4.30 to 6.30 pm. Jago is a seven year old coalition of Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWA’s) and Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) in Bangalore East.“This activity must be replicated in each ward…

On May 2nd, Transport Minister R Ashok inaugurated an incomplete JP Nagar underpass near 24th Main, 15th Cross road junction. The overbridge which runs from 24th Main towards Puttenahalli and Jambusavari Dinne has been opened. Road towards Sarakki from from 24th Main 15th cross junction. Pic: Chetan Boray. Out of the four side-roads branching out of the overbridge, only two side roads towards JP Nagar 6th phase and Sarakki signal are functioning. The other two side roads are still under construction and not open to public. Construction of underpass road leading from 6th phase JP Nagar to Bannerghatta is also…

On April 21st late afternoon, there was a very heavy downpour with hailstorm and very gusty winds. On my way home at Vijayanagar at about 5.30 pm, while it was still raining, I found the skyline near my home looking different I looked up to see a few trees were broken in the middle and fallen over houses.Right in front of my house, two trees had fallen. On the main road behind, I found eight electric poles and three trees had fallen on 11 KVA power lines. This caused the complete stretch of electric poles and trees fall flat on…

The BBMP council is finally in place, but the BBMP is not the only agency responsible for urban governance in Bangalore. There are many para-statals like BDA, BMRDA, BWSSB, BMTC responsible for performing the many civic functions of the city.  There is a clear need for a citizen to understand the functional differences between these statutory agencies to deal with issues pragmatically. The City Corporation The BBMP (meaning Greater Bangalore City Corporation) is the Municipal Corporation which is responsible for the overall administration of the city of Bangalore. The BBMP was officially formed in January 2007 by merging the 100…

Next time, if ever an emergency occurs in your area, you need not be a silent spectator because of the sole reason that you are not trained to tackle such situations. Civil Defence (CD), an organisation that is not so well known but is increasingly becoming popular in the city, enables citizens to actively respond in case of emergencies. CD is a government organisation functioning according to the Civil Defence Act, 1968. Civil Defence Act, 1968The act provides the basis for the formation of Civil Defence Corps, which it empowers to take any action - not amounting to actual combat…

The German botanist Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel is a part and parcel of Bangalore history....Now, Max Mueller Bhavan is hosting an exhibition about him:G.H. Krumbiegel: "Whatever he touched he adorned"A multimedia show curated by Suresh Jayaram17 - 30.04.20109.00 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. (Closed on Sundays)Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller BhavanInauguration on 16.04.2010, 6.30 p.mMore details here ⊕