Governance

Smart Cities Mission (SCM), an exclusive initiative of the Modi government, has got much attention because of its promise to dramatically transform cities. SCM was launched in 2015, aiming to develop 100 cities in the country as ‘smart cities’. The cities are selected based on their current development status and their project proposals. The chosen cities get funding of Rs 500 cr each from the central government and the respective state governments. They have to secure the rest of the funds through municipal bonds, PPP projects etc. This implies that citizens will have to pay user charges for many of…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has proposed converting street lights to Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights many times in the last 10 years, but none of those plans were executed. Now the BBMP has come up with a new approach to making it happen. BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad recently explained that the government would in a couple of weeks call out tenders for the work of replacing street lights with LED light bulbs. It is expected to take a couple of years for the project to be completed. Why has there been a delay in the  plan for LED…

It’s been a protracted battle that lasted for over 15 months, involving lakhs of apartment residents, thousands of apartment complexes, hundreds of representations to Government and Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), tens of court cases and one protest rally. The Government of Karnataka has finally made BWSSB withdraw the retrospective Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) notification imposed on apartments, based on a presentation done by the Governing Council of Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF). During this period, apartment residents have been unreasonably and unfairly accused of not doing their bit for the city, by “opposing STPs”. To clear up the…

Sitting in a corner of her rented room in Korrukupet, C Shanthi, a manual scavenger is restless. Shanthi is not certain how much longer she will have this house in Anandanayaki Nagar as her shelter. The 40-year-old woman has not paid her rent over the past two months. A widow, Shanthi has been working at the Chennai Central railway station for the past five years. Her job includes sweeping and often cleaning faeces off the platforms, thus saving passengers the ordeal of foul sights and stench. What she gets in return for taking up this unsavoury profession is appalling: irregular…

The tenure of the present Karnataka Assembly ends on May 28, 2018. Elections for the 224 seats in the Karnataka Assembly are likely to be held in May, 2018. The final dates are yet to be determined. Every day we see examples of poor governance around us – despite paying our bills, taxes and being the fairly conscientious citizens we think we are. Many a time, we hear ‘the government should do this or that’, the traffic is terrible, the pollution is killing us, the garbage situation is untenable and so on and so forth. All of which is true. It’s also true…

Inviting you to  write an article to comment on how the Master Plan-2031 will impact your neighbourhood, in this contest presented by Citizen Matters, Bengaluru , B.PAC and ooru.in  Check out the draft of the Revised Master Plan - 2031 (RMP-2031) released by Bangalore Development Authority, that is set to define our city’s growth for the next 15 years. Understand, analyse and write an article to comment on how it will impact your neighbourhood. What we expect Your write up should be based on an understanding of what the Master Plan 2031 is about and how it can impact your locality and city. Substantiate…

A day ahead of the crucial byelections, R K Nagar was buzzing with activity as the city police and personnel of the special task force oversaw security and other preparations. Tension has been palpable in the constituency amidst allegations of malpractice, in particular the distribution of money by political parties to win the assembly seat that fell vacant upon the demise of the former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. VoiceOfPeople, a group of concerned residents from all quarters of society, gathered at the Tondiarpet zonal office on Wednesday, a day after the political parties wound up their campaigning, as per the…

A 60-day window is open for the public to participate in giving comments to Bengaluru’s draft Revised Masterplan (RMP) 2031. The legally required participation acknowledges that the public has knowledge and that sharing is essential to bring about a plan viable for all. While citizens now are trying to read through monumental 6 volumes of plan material to give their inputs, government’s effort to equip citizen with planning literacy is inadequate. Environment Support Group (ESG) conducted a workshop on: “How to...understand and comment on the Revised Draft Masterplan 2031 for Bengaluru” in which the above concerns were addressed. During the…

It has been a year of discontent in the medical sector with patients losing patience, doctors threatening to go on strike and governments resorting to thrust-and-parry. At different points in time throughout the year, governments in different parts of the country were seen to lock horns with the medical system, beginning with Kolkata in June, going on to Bengaluru in November and most recently in Delhi this month. Delhi The latest flashpoint emerged in the capital city, the trigger being an incident at the Max Hospital at Shalimar Bagh, where a couple of doctors falsely declared the death of a…