Civic

Many of us know that hundreds of trees are  felled all over the city under the guise of road widening often with no prior approval. Traders, home-owners, street vendors and slum dwellers are  dislocated without appropriate compensation apparently for various infrastructure projects without guarantee that these tasks will meet their proposed objectives and deadlines. If these citizen groups hadn’t intervened, BBMP would have implemented its road-widening scheme launched in 2005 (pic courtesy: Hasiru Usiru/ESG) Knowing that we could either accept or question the largely brazen and undemocratic approach adopted in the name of the city's development, some groups such as…

As a part of an initiative on good governance, a group of RTI activists and civil societies in the city came up with RTI Clinics for citizens of Bangalore. The Clinic is a joint initiative of RTI activists groups, community-based organizations and grassroots social justice campaigners. The idea behind coming up with RTI Clinic is to create awareness on the Act, provide procedural guidance and assistance to obtain information from government bodies. (Social justice campaigners are people who campaign for the fundamental rights or grievance redressal of the marginalized such as domestic workers, child labourers and internally displaced riot victims,…

"The world is a playground, and life is pushing my swing." - Natalie Kocsis The Revised Master Plan 2015 of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) designates playgrounds as, ‘premises used for outdoor games’. Bangalore has many such grounds which are managed by the city’s municipal corporation – Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). These grounds have unrestricted access; open play areas with some play equipment and courts, where multiple groups of youngsters are involved in various sporting activities - cricket, football, basketball and some unique hybrid sports. The Akkithimmanahalli playground before the encroachments in June 2008 (pic Rohan D'Souza) These playgrounds…

HSR Layout Sector 2 is witness to numerous unauthorised and filthy garbage dumps with pigs and stray dogs adding to the menace. In tune with their aim of keeping a clean and healthy environment for one and all, we, the HSR Layout Sector-2 Residents Welfare Association, had conducted a garbage awareness campaign during April 2009. Officials and staff of BBMP also participated in the campaign on 18th April 2009.Pigs and dogs frequent garbage dumps in HSR Layout Sector 2 (Pic courtesy: Brig Murthy) Residents of HSR Layout Sector 2 campaign for a cleaner neighbourhood (pic courtesy: Brig. Murthy) The message…

We, the members of Apartments Owners Association of Aradhana Apartments in ST Bed Layout, Koramangala are concerned regarding developments leading to an unauthorized construction of a planned new road side temple structure alongside our apartment. The planned location for the unauthorized temple structure (pic courtsey: SV Krishnan) The construction is being planned by a group of people and the implications if this is allowed are:1.    The road is connecting the 80 feet road and the ring road through ST Bed Layout. Any structure which would result in attracting people would result in traffic congestion through these narrow roads.2.    There are…

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike's fiasco at the JP Nagar 24th Main Road/15th Cross Ring Road intersection (underpass) is well known to south Bangalore residents in that area. A contractor had outsourced the work to another incompetent contractor who was later replaced by the BBMP. The project is months behind schedule and shows no sign of completion, with heaps of mud, broken dividers with mud all over and the main road dug up. 15th cross-ring road intersection dug up (Pic: Supriya Khandekar) In 2006, despite a clear warning from its own chief auditor on tendering, the BBMP violated the process…

Yesterday, hundreds of concerned citizens turned up at the spot where BMRCL proposes to have a Metro station inside Lalbagh itself...and had broken down a part of the Lalbagh wall, and felled several eucalyptus trees. They have not yet received permission to do this, so it was illegal, and citizens also reacted emotionally to their greenery being despoiled in this way.Here's the portion of the wall that was broken down:Several police officers were on duty, and they had the unenviable task of keeping the peace while not antagonizing the citizens. Mr Dawood Khan kept a low profile throughout, though he…

CIVIC, an NGO working for participative democracy, in conjunction with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), conducted a pilot study on slum and urban homelessness in Bengaluru and an event was organized at Institute of Agricultural Technologists, Queens Cross Road on 28th February, 2009 to release the report and highlight some of the findings. BBMP had commissioned the study to understand the effectiveness of the services they provide to urban poor in the city. The study itself was conducted over two months in 19 habitations, through Focus Group Discussions and the use of secondary data. Some of the findings highlighted at…

  Just sometimes, one gets entertained when one least expects it...  With thanks to L.Shyamal, whom I know as an experienced ornithologist with a great sense of humour...  ⊕

As one of the most well planned residential areas of Bengaluru, Jayanagar has been touted as a haven for the business class and the retired crowd. Home to prominent names like Infosys co-founder, N R Narayana Murthy, actor Vishnuvardhan and writer Shashi Deshpande, this hub in the southern part of the city has wide roads, tree lined avenues and excellent public transport. But problems like garbage, parking and sewerage have not only got residents fighting for a better Jayanagar, it has also united the various residents' associations. Jayanagar 4th Block Complex Twelve Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) came together in July…