Governance

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Smart Cities Mission in 2015, which aims to execute ‘smart solutions’ that help develop cities in a people-friendly, sustainable way. Chennai Smart City Limited (CSCL) is the local arm of this initiative. It is also the organisation behind the upcoming pedestrian plaza at T-Nagar and other key projects. Below are excerpts from a chat with its CEO, Raj Cherubal. What is your vision of a Smart Chennai? The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has the concept of a liveability index, which basically focuses on improving the quality of life. Electronics,…

Today, the BBMP Council elected M Gowtham Kumar as Bengaluru's new Mayor. Kumar, the BJP corporator from Jogupalya ward, replaces Gangambike Mallikarjun of the Congress. Here is a look at Gangambike's accomplishments, and the causes she had taken up in her tenure as Mayor. Pushing for ward committee meetings: In BBMP Council’s monthly session in November 2018, Gangambike announced that ward committee meetings should mandatorily be held in all 198 wards on the first Saturday of each month, starting immediately. Her announcement came after the city’s civic activists ran several campaigns for the cause over the years. Ward committee meetings…

This year, thousands of Bengalureans could not vote in the Lok Sabha election since their names went missing from the electoral rolls mysteriously. Among them were people who had voted in the assembly elections just last year. Thousands of applications for new enrolment also lay unprocessed for months before the election, which prevented many others from voting. Those who couldn't vote took to social media to voice their anger, and some even went to the High Court. The problem of voters missing from electoral rolls was reported from other cities too. From September 1st to October 15th, Election Commission of…

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon that saw the launch of  a new political party in Bengaluru. Now, in an already overcrowded political spectrum, this should not be news. Yet the launch of Bengaluru Navanirmana Party (BNP) has some unique facets to it, that should get us to sit up and take notice. For one, it is possibly the first of its kind 'city' party. Launched with the specific idea of starting its political journey with the 2020 BBMP elections, BNP has no ambitions beyond Bengaluru, and none of its founders are politicians. They are just regular citizens, many of…

As the eighth woman to become Bengaluru's Mayor, Gangambike Mallikarjun has had an eventful tenure since she took charge in September 2018. She prioritised ward committee meetings much to the pleasure of those who had been fighting for it for years, weathered the political turmoil at Vidhana Soudha, and even sheepishly coughed up fines (twice) for using plastic bags. With less than a week left for her to step down from office, she sat down for a chat with Citizens' Live, to talk about all she could accomplish in her tenure and couldn't accomplish. Her major achievement that made headlines,…

In a bid to regularise the posts of 4000 pourakarmikas in the city, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) called for online applications in a circular dated 27th August. There are 18,000 pourakarmikas in the city who have been receiving their salaries under the direct payment system since January 2018, and the state government had earlier promised to regularise all of them. The pourakarmikas therefore are frustrated that only 4000 workers may be regularised instead of all 18,000. In this context, the BBMP Pourakarmikara Sangha, affiliated with the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), organised a protest on…

With assembly elections due next February, the Arvind Kejriwal government is on a spree doling out freebies to Delhi voters. The freebies range from free electricity, free water and free WiFi to free bus rides for women. They all come with a catch, though. For instance, electricity will be free only for those consuming a maximum of 200 units every month. For those consuming 201 to 400 units, the subsidy was revised to a maximum discount of Rs 800 on the bill. Similarly, with regard to water subsidy, the limit is 20 kilolitres per month, with the consumer having to…

A penalty of Rs 47,500 imposed on an auto driver in Bhubaneswar; another in Gurgaon fined Rs 32,500, both on multiple counts of violation; a whopping 2 lakh in fines to be shared by the driver and owner of a truck in Delhi for overloading and other violations, and the vehicles involved in these cases impounded till the penalised can pay the amounts... Over the past two weeks, since the amended Motor Vehicles Act came into effect on September 1, these and similar headlines have dominated news space. Stories of unheard-of penalty amounts have been reported and shared on social…

The jurisdiction of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, which extends over 198 wards and 28 Assembly constituencies, has population of more than 1.1 cr. Because of this, providing services and facilities to citizens is becoming a daily struggle. Due to reorganisation, in many cases one assembly constituency is distributed over more than one zone, and this has created difficulties in citizen and administration related tasks. Presently, many major infrastructure works are being implemented in the BBMP jurisdiction, and many more are in the pipeline. In the present system, the concerned Joint Commissioners submit all files pertaining to zones for the approval…

The Bombay High Court (HC) has become the last recourse for citizens to save Mumbai's miniscule tree cover -- less than a tree per head as aganst the world standard of seven trees per head. The city's few remaining trees are facing the axe from large, high-profile infrastructural projects. The High Court is playing the role meant to be played by the Mumbai's Tree Authority, a statutory body set up following promulgation of the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975. From getting the Tree Authority suspended for nine months, probably for the first time, and insisting…