Our Picks from the Web
We have news extracts from various publications and media houses and quotes from people and videos of talk shows, all complied here with links for you to dig in.
Commercial Spaces Disturb Residential Peace in Bengaluru
PUBLISHED ON: NOVEMBER 11, 2015 | DURATION: 3 MIN, 38 SEC
NDTV Profit speaks to the residents of Indiranagar regarding the commercialization of residential areas.
End of biz activities in housing zones begins in Koramangala
Nov 22 2015 : Mirror (Bangalore)
An active RWA makes sure authorities enforce rule of law, based on the govt notification that no commercial project should be in residential areas post the HC-set January 25, 2012 deadline It is just 10 buildings so far in one part of the city. But it could be the blue print for extermination of commercial use of properties in residential areas, putting a question mark especially on the start-up culture in the city.
In the Part II of their campaign, Koramangala III Block Residents Welfare Association was at it for six months identifying illegal commercial buildingsactivities in their midst. Through a systematic communication chain involving residents and BBMP, the RWA zeroes in on 10 buildings. While three commercial activities have shut operations, five are readying to shut down or face sealing of their buildings.
Part I of their campaign involved obtaining a government notification (with high court’s nudge) disallowing commercial activities in residential main and residential mixed zones in Ring 1 and 2 (Ring 1 is core areas; Ring 2 is residential localities like Jayanagar, Koramangala, Indiranagar, Malleshwaram, RT Nagar etc) where the road width is less than 40 feet. Post the notification in March 2015, the Koramangala III block residents got active to identify commercial buildings constructed on plots for which plan sanctions were obtained for residential usage.
The high court had set a cut-off date as January 25, 2012, and buildings that have come up in violation of the rules after this date come under the radar.“Armed with the court order, we conveyed a meeting of our RWA and placed the agenda. It was approved and we set out nspecting the buildings and ound that 10 structures had violations and had come up post the HC-set deadline,” explained RWA vice president Vishwanath Kashyap.
The building plans of these 10 buildings were sanctioned for residential use but got changed some houses had rented out the premises for commercial activities like offices of start-ups, extended BPOs, software, catering, while a few came up as commercial buildings. As per the Masterplan 2015, ancillary usages can be permitted in residential main and residential mixed zones in Ring 1 and 2 up to 20% of the builtup area or 50 sq m, whichever is lower provided the width of the road is above 40 feet.
Regular follow-ups with BBMP area engineers and health officials resulted in closure of three commercial activities recently and five are in the firing line. BBMP health officer, south, Dr M Hedge, told Bangalore Mirror: “I inspected all these buildings and found that there were violations. Closure orders have been issued for three premises and preliminary notices for closure of five buildings. I have also written to the area chief engineer not to allow commercial buildings in the area on residential plots and also stop the under-construction structures.” According to Nitin Seshadri, resident and a civic activist, the premises were also carrying out a few catering businesses functioning out of garages, without boards. “Commercial activities bring in vehicular traffic into the residential bylanes and the neighbourhood bears the brunt with parking problems and noise. In fact, we also had a dialogue with the owners and apprised them about the violations, and how it is causing inconvenience to the area. It was BBMP’s job to bell the cat which it did not do, but following our initiative, there is action,” says Seshadri.
THE GENESIS
The issue goes back to 2008 when several residents associations filed PIL against a new category called mixed residential usage that was introduced in the BDA Masterplan 2015, which threatened to open up commercialisation in residential areas.The high court ordered BDA to amend rules so that only ancillary use be allowed in residential properties and no fresh approvals for commercial activities be allowed in main residential areas on roads less than 40 ft width and less. Even as the BDA furnished an affidavit to this effect to the court, the government did not follow the diktat and came out with rules that would encourage commercialisation. The residents continued their legal fight and the government was forced to withdraw the order. Their perseverance bore fruit in March 2015 with a government notification on High Court prodding.
Do you want 90% freedom from landfill? Here’s a model
[Via Savitha Hiremath]
There are two ways to look at the landfill crisis in Bangalore (or any other city for that matter). Deal with it in the most sustainable manner possible (within the available means) at a personal level. Or, join in the chorus of the multitude which does not want to participate in this change but is ready to pursue erratic paths to pointless ends.
My own community—Sobha Althea-Azalea located in Yelahanka—was a model that ToI celebrated as one of the 15 ideas to emulate in its 2014, August 15th edition. The community participated in this activity every day and did its best to ensure very little was sent out for landfilling mainly because it was hazardous, non-recyclable waste. This achievement was captured by the Bengaluru Needs You team led by Prof. Rajeev Gowda as a replicable solution to the garbage issue in a burgeoning Bangalore.
I hope you will watch this documentary and take up solid waste management in your own home/ community if you still haven’t, yet. If you need any help to set up a self-sustainable SWM model, please send an email to endlesslygreen360 @ gmail.com.
Streetwise
[Courtesy: Economist]
Cities are starting to put pedestrians and cyclists before motorists. That makes them nicer—and healthier—to live in.
AT 6am on a sweltering Sunday the centre of Gurgaon, a city in northern India, is abuzz. Children queue for free bicycles to ride on a 4km stretch of road that will be cordoned off from traffic for the next five hours. Teenagers pedal about, taking selfies; middle-aged men and women jog by. On a stage, a black-belt demonstrates karate; yoga practice is on a quieter patch down the street. Weaving through the crowd dispensing road-safety tips is a traffic cop with a majestic moustache.
Gurgaon’s weekly jamboree is called Raahgiri (“reclaim your streets”). Amit Bhatt of EMBARQ, a green think-tank, started it in 2013, inspired by Bogotá’s ciclovía, pictured above, for which Colombia’s capital closes 120km of streets on Sundays and holidays. Such events are part of a movement that is accelerating around the world. Read On…
Politicising public mobility can de congest Delhi’s roads:
[Courtesy: Down to Earth]
The occupation of footpaths and public spaces in the capital by illegally-parked cars has put pedestrians at jeopardy.
(by Ashutosh Dikshit. He heads the United Residents’ Joint Action, an apex body of resident welfare associations in Delhi) [Source Link]
Delhi’s traffic mayhem has become a daily topic of discussion in the media. Multiple reasons are cited for the present state of affairs which include bad road design, encroachment and an absence of law enforcement. To top it all, the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 is a weak piece of legislation that is of no help.
Recently, minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari suggested that incentives be given to people for scrapping old vehicles. This is a practice in many countries, but the only difference is that the flip side of such schemes is also laid down clearly.
In Delhi, the incentive for scrapping old vehicles is likely to give rise to a business in acquiring scrapping certificates while selling cars.
In this piece, I would like to draw the readers’ attention to a largely-ignored facet of car use and some possible solutions of how to de congest the capital’s roads.
The occupation of footpaths and public spaces in Delhi by illegally-parked cars has several ramifications. Most of them go unnoticed in the absence of a proper law-enforcement agency.
The right of car owners to park in public places is perceived as a natural consequence, stemming from the desire to own a car in the first place.
The occupation of public spaces by vehicles has damaged the city in ways that we do not even consider. In my view, this is an important reason as to why Delhi will never ever be a world-class city till this problem is addressed.
Here, car owners pay a paltry sum in the name of night parking charges during vehicle registration and virtually acquires the right to park on any public space. Apart from this, the cleaning, lighting and maintenance of public spaces come free of cost to car owners.
In the absence of any regulation or restriction on usage of public space for parking, it is only competitive brawn that decides how much of which the driver does not own (parking space) can be occupied for his potential use.
However, there are other problems too. In a city like Delhi, manufacturers make profit from selling cars where there is no cost involved of storing them.
Even before buying foodstuff, consumers consider stocking charges such as the refrigeration cost. But when it comes to cars, they can be parked free of cost on any land that belongs to the public.
This public land can be a footpath or parts of a motorised carriageway. Parks within some residential areas have also been occupied for parking cars. There is a massive subsidy being provided to buyers.
For instance, as per the Master Plan Delhi 2021, a car may occupy about 23 sq metres (about 250 sq ft) of land when parked at its home base. This would include the actual parking space and a part of the driveway space. A similar amount of space would be occupied at its destination like the office. So, the car effectively occupies about 46 sq metres or about 500 sq ft of space to be useful.
Assuming that the approximate cost of land in South Delhi is at a conservative price of Rs 6 lakh per square metre, it means a cost of about Rs 276 lakh (2.76 crore). This is provided either free or at a nominal charge, of say Rs 20, for eight hours of parking.
Similarly, a three bedroom ground floor flat in a south Delhi DDA SFS flat may occupy about 1,500 sq ft. Two such flats with a common staircase of 200 sq ft area between them may occupy about 3,200 sq ft.
If the blocks have ground plus three floors of flats, that would be eight flats on a ground footprint area of 3,200 sq ft (about 300 sq metres). If the cost of this land is taken to be at Rs 6 lakh per square metre, then the cost of this would be about Rs 18 crore, or a share per flat of about Rs 2.25crore per flat.
If each flat has two cars, which they usually do, the value of the land occupied by these cars would be Rs 5.5 crore per flat. So, a flat which occupies a ground area of approximately Rs 2.25crore, is given land worth almost 2.5 times its cost for keeping cars.
Not only this. Car owners occupy thousands of crores worth of footpath and side-walk to park cars in Delhi. That too, the land has been freely encroached upon, thus forcing the pedestrians to walk on the motorway putting their lives at risk.
House owners, who have reconstructed their houses, have converted the mandatory stilt parking area into additional space for other uses. Thus, they have occupied the footpath or carriageway outside their boundaries for parking cars free of cost.
In other areas, parks and lawns have been occupied as cars owners are gradually swallowing the entire open space.
In a recent study conducted by the Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment, on an 800-metre stretch of road in Alaknanda, illegally parked cars can generate an annual revenue of Rs 1.2 crore annually.
So, while parking cars on roads and other open spaces is illegal and remains outside the ambit of legitimate state revenue, freely indulging in it is the norm.
This unhindered availability of public land, parks and roads for parking cars free of cost is a sufficient reason why the city has failed to bring public transport infrastructure up to the desired level.
To assume that all officers in the government do not worry about this state of affairs or damage to the environment will be untrue, since they are also intelligent enough to realise that a collapsing city and poisonous air is damaging them and the health of their families.
Transport experts and urban planners in Delhi know that the entire cost of retrofitting Delhi’s roads can be recovered through parking charges alone, only if government officers decide to do so.
The report of the high-powered committee on how to decongest Delhi talks about “parking pricing and management (PPnM)”. PPnM is the key measure for travel demand management. The supply of free/inexpensive parking at the final destination is a key decision factor for people choosing to drive a personal vehicle, rather than taking a bus, metro and other modes of public transport. It has been suggested that some kind of pricing strategies should be employed to manage and bring down public parking space demand.
But this will not be easy given that our society habitually disregards civic laws unless repeated coercive methods are used. It is not possible for officers, who themselves are product of the same cultural and social norms, to enforce a law that requires large-scale and constant policing with a degree of severity.
Politicians will obviously not take kindly to recommending any step, regardless of its long-term benefit, if it annoys the public by asking them to change their habits. This is the reason why parking charges and an enforcement regime is absent in our culture.
What is, however, possible is to rely on inducement. We know that the city can only survive with an efficient public transport system (metro, buses and taxis) and pedestrian spaces. We know that car ownership should be discouraged for those who do not own the space to park them.
We may consider this. Once it is declared that a voter will get credit in cash or redeemable tokens if he uses public transport, he will see sufficient inducement to do so. But politicians should ensure that heavy parking charges for cars are levied and collected since voters have to be paid bonus for using public tranpsort.
While the details of such a plan can be worked out by economists by a simple calculation, I can say that if only cars parked illegally on the Alaknanda road were to be charged Rs 50 per day as parking charges, the recovery is enough to help 1,300 domestic workers travel to and fro in buses from their homes to workplaces free of cost.
Considering that the employers do not provide facilities like crèches, toilets, canteens or medical insurance, this is perhaps a simple thing to do.
Alternatively, the money realised as parking fees can fund rainwater harvesting in the area or at least 10 solid waste composting plants could be set up or kitchen water recycling units established.
This is not meant to be a long-term plan as free public transport based on more and more cars will be self defeating, but I am making the assumption that over a period of time the monetary advantage provided to the public transport user will generate a larger demand for it. This may result in creating the politics of public mobility. Public habits (both car owners and otherwise) will change sufficiently, forcing the government to develop a world-class mobility infrastructure.
Ashutosh Dikshit heads the United Residents Joint Action, an apex body of resident welfare associations in Delhi.
Rent-A-Bag: Sanjay Nagar
Rent-A-Bag is a citizens’ initiative in Bengaluru that aims to reduce the use of plastics by tackling it at the source.
Residents moot ‘breakfast with babus’ programme
[Courtesy: By Bharat A Patel, Bangalore Mirror Bureau]
Bonding over breakfast to sort out problems such as garbage and gridlock? This is precisely the first step that residents of Madhavnagar, off Kumara Krupa road, will take this Sunday morning to make their locality more liveable.
Having formed the Madhavnagar Residents Welfare Association (MRWA), the residents have also invited officials from the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bescom, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), the jurisdictional police station and the local traffic cops to join them at the breakfast table. The event will also mark the coming together of the 400-plus houses. Read On…
Community volunteers cleanse Domlur neighbourhood
[Courtesy: ichangemycity.com]
Bengalurean Sneha Nandihal turns inspiration, shuts commercial establishments near her house:
[Courtesy: The Economic Times By J Vignesh]
Bengalureans being fed up with commercial establishments cropping up in residential areas is nothing new. Someone finding an effective way to shut them down and restore peace, however, is Sneha Nandihal, president of the BM Kaval Residents Welfare Association and a banking consultant, has fought hard to close down 24 commercial establishments in her area in the past one year.
For the 35-year-old citizen, this is an important civic duty because businesses in residential areas affect the quality of life. “It exerts pressure on the existing infrastructure: from sewage to parking to water facilities,” she said.
When she took up the gauntlet last year, she had no clue where to begin. Sneha and her team had to research and hit upon a structure.
The magic formula she has arrived at is entirely within the framework of the law: identify all the commercial establishments in the area that have cropped up after 2012, file RTI or write to the BDA Town Planning to find out if the street is classified as residential according to the Revised Master Plan 2015. Then, file an RTI with the BBMP engineering department to get the width of the road and if it turns out to be less than 40 feet, no commercial building should be existing. That is what the February 2014 Karnataka High Court order specifies.
Finally, file two RTIs: one with the BDA to see if the land usage change has been made from residential to commercial and another with the ward’s medical officer of health to check if the commercial establishment has obtained trade licence and for what purpose and under what clause. If all these prove that the establishment should not exist, then the establishments will be given notice to vacate from the BBMP.
How about the livelihood of those people who have to shut shop? “They , no doubt, have the right to livelihood but they should earn it under the ambit of the law,” Nandihal said.
Inspired by her formula, the Koramangala 3rd Block Residents’ Welfare Association applied it to seven commercial establishments, all within the last week.”These commercial establishments are like cancer. They will slowly eat away the residential area. Sneha has shown the way for other neighbourhoods to follow,” said Nitin Seshadri, president of the Koramangala Residents’ Welfare Association.
Sneha’s battle has not been a smooth ride. She has faced her share of verbal abuse and threats. “This is a constant battle. One has to be extremely vigilant and patient,” said the civic-conscious Bengalurean. [Read on Economic Times]
Too ‘happening’ for comfort
[Courtesy: The Hindu by K. C. DEEPIKA | March 2, 2014]
Once an ideal residential area, Indiranagar is today cluttered with commercial establishments.
“We moved into Indiranagar in 1971. It was like a pensioner’s paradise. There was only one restaurant, one doctor’s clinic and one school. There were vegetable gardens and we used to take long walks,” S. Venkateswaran, a retired employee, recalls fondly.
But Mr. Venkateswaran’s (77) pride evaporates rapidly as he talks about what has become one of the city’s ‘happening’ destinations.
“We can barely walk today. People coming to the expensive restaurants here are ready to pay any price for anything.
The property owners too say they are offering paying guest accommodation, but in reality they are offering service apartments on a daily rental basis. Each portion of one house is being divided into four and given on rent for different purposes,” he rues.
The entire stretches on CMH Road, 100-ft Road, 80-ft Road and the 12th and 6th Main Roads are fast becoming commercial hubs, emerging as alternative leisure and entertainment destinations to Brigade Road, M.G. Road and Commercial Street. While younger residents are celebrating Indiranagar’s new identity, the old timers are grappling with the rapid changes. For 73-year-old H.N. Ramakrishna, problems of commercialisation start in his backyard, literally. With the owner of the neighbouring house deciding to enter into a “joint development” agreement with a private builder, a popular resto-bar is being set up in the residential layout.
Pointing to a car that does not belong to them parked right outside his gate, Mr. Ramakrishna says: “People who work in nearby offices or those who come to the bank on the next road park here. I don’t know what will happen when this restaurant opens.”
He points out that most owners have rented out their homes and moved either to a different area or another country. Small-scale industrialist Ramakrishna Nayak (78) moved to HSR Layout as they could not adjust to the increasing commercialisation. “We could not sleep in peace with all the noise around. All our neighbours sold their properties one by one. So we moved out in 2004,” he said.
C.V. Raman Nagar MLA S. Raghu expressed helplessness over unbridled commercialisation, saying the owners, 80 per cent of whom bought sites 40 years ago, were “voluntarily” giving away properties. He said a major administrative problem was the traffic, which came with the numerous restaurants, cafes and shops.
While residents called the bluff on the so-called valet parking, which basically means strangers’ vehicles parked in front of their homes, a traffic inspector in Indiranagar also pointed out that the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike would have to provide an alternative parking space as even basements meant for parking were being rented out.
[Original Source from THE HINDU dated March 14]
Here’s how web-based companies unite carpoolers
[Courtesy: Times of India, Aparajita Ray,TNN | Jul 25, 2015]
In cities choking with traffic, carpooling is turning into a doable option. The good news is now you can choose not only your fellow travelers, but also the vehicle in which you wish to hitch a ride, facilitated by various web-based car pooling companies.
Kalyan Suran, a techie from CV Ramannagar, chose Basavaraj M Balajanar through a web platform of a car pooling company; both have their offices in Bellandur. “We share industry talk. For instance, we discuss about vacancies in our respective companies and refer suitable candidates, if any . He also called me home for his daughter’s birthday; our families get along very well,” says Kalyan.
Pool Circle, a web and app based car pooling company launched in Bengaluru six months ago, has a rating and trust point system. Points are based on the information you provide about your self while users can go registering. Other users can go through this before taking a call on whether to join you for the ride. A person with over 1,000 trust points gets five stars; sharing corporate e-mail id helps earn 40 points.
Bla Bla Car, an intra and intercity operator from Europe that launched in Bengaluru in mid-2014, has a simple system in place: a person registering for carpooling must share contact details, official e-mail address (that details his professional background) and tag social profiles like Facebook and LinkedIn. This helps parties choose.
Shubha Pai, head of pre-sales, InMobi, travels from her residence in Vijaya Bank Layout, Bannerghatta, to Bellandur every day; she travels with Ravi, who works in Whitefield. These co-travellers chose each other through a carpooling platform. “I found Ravi and I stay in the same area. From his social profiles, I got to know his friends, contacts and the company he works for. For those who wish to know the kind of co-passenger I am, they just have to visit the Pool Circle website or app and check out how Ravi rates me,” she says. Read on…
Notice to govt, civic agencies over café in residential area TIMES NEWS
[Courtesy: NETWORK: Jul 25 2015 : The Times of India (Bangalore)]
A high court division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee on Friday ordered notice to the government, BDA, BBMP and others in a PIL filed by the Koramangala 3rd Block Residents’ Welfare Association. The association claimed that the trade licence granted to Hivemind Cafe and Studios on November 19, 2014 to run a cafe called Breakfast Club on 8th Main, Koramangala 3rd Block (a residential area), is in violation of zoning regulations and also a high court division bench judgment in 2012. The ruling was given in connection with the Comprehensive Development Plan and also change of land-use regulations under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961. Related Link: Is Koramangala a residential area? HC seeks to know
‘Nobody cycles across Mumbai.’ But why?
[Courtesy: Nick Mead in Mumbai for The Guardian]
The reaction when locals heard I was planning to ride with cycling activists in this traffic-choked Indian megacity made me nervous – but the reality wasn’t so different from London or New York. Could cycling culture have a chance here? “You’re going to cycle across Mumbai? Are you sure? Nobody does that here.” The face of the hotel receptionist when she realises I want to borrow a bike to ride around the city centre at rush hour is a picture of confusion and concern. In the end she opts for a head wobble, which could mean yes, or no … or anything in between.
Mumbai – the sixth biggest megacity in the world with a metropolitan population of around 20 million people – is notorious for its chaotic traffic. Swarms of black and yellow taxis and auto-rickshaws jostle with smoke-belching buses and battered Maruti-Suzukis in a cacophony of honking horns and revving engines. No one takes the slightest notice of road markings; there is no congestion charging or bus rapid transit; no bus lanes or bike lanes. Read on…
BBMP polls to be held on August 22nd
[Courtesy: News Desk, 16 Jul 2015 , Citizen Matters]
The State Election Commission has declared BBMP elections for the second time. Polls will now be held on August 22nd. The Supreme Court also clarified that the eight weeks time granted earlier, was applicable from July 2nd.
After a long court battle, the State Election Commission has declared BBMP polls for the second time. According to the fresh calendar of events, BBMP polls will be held on August 22nd, and model code of conduct will be in effect from July 17th. State Election Commissioner P N Sreenivasachari in a press meet on Thursday, declared the freshly prepared election schedule. During the hearing of the election related petition in the High Court on July 13th, the SEC had assured the HC that it would submit the fresh election schedule by Friday.
Announcing the calendar of events, Sreenivasachari said that the election would be held in a single phase. August 3rd: BBMP Commissioner to issue election notification August 10th: Last date for filing nominations August 10th: Last date for citizens to enrol on the voters list August 11th: Nominations scrutiny August 13th: Last date for withdrawing nominations August 22nd: Poll day August 25th: Counting of votes Read on…
Skepticism in the air over Greater Bengaluru Authority idea proposed by panel
[Courtesy: Akshatha M, 15 Jul 2015, Citizen Matters]
There are many aspects of the BBMP Restructuring Committee report that did not please everyone. Here are some of the bouquets and brickbats.
The much awaited final report on Restructuring BBMP has been submitted to the government. The recommendations of the Committee which range from a three-tier system of governance to restructuring Bengaluru into five corporations to establishment of Greater Bengaluru Financial Commission and extension of Mayor’s term to five years, have been appreciated as well as criticised. Citizen Matters tried to pool the opinions of representatives from various political parties, urban experts and citizens on what they had to say about the Restructuring Committee report. One aspect that was talked about by majority of them was the formation of Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA). Read on…
BBMP division: One city to 5 – For better or worse?
[Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle | R. Jayaprakash and Chandrashekar G. | J]
The Congress is doing what it is best at — politicking in Bengaluru City. Citizens are clueless about elections, the state government is yet to make up its mind on dismantling the city into five parts (the issue is now in the ongoing session), the court is pressing for elections and the election commission is playing second fiddle — sometimes to the government and sometimes to the high court.
In the next week, there will be some clarity. The BBMP may be dismantled and the city divided into five corporations on the lines of the recommendations of the BS Patil committee report. The Government may decide to put the recommendations of the committee in the deep freezer and go for elections. Also, the Government may indulge in a long-drawn-out legal battle over the issue while the administrators will continue to govern the BBMP.
The congress government’s attempts to stall the BBMP elections in the wake of public outrage following DK Ravi’s death has failed at every step. With two months to go for the completion of the BJP’s tenure at the BBMP, the congress government set up the Kataria committee to look into irregularities in the civic body.
While the committee made strong recommendations for superseding, the government however, failed in its attempt and allowed the completion of the term. At the same time, it also set up a select committee headed by SR Patil, Minister for IT and BT and another committee headed by former Chief Secretary BS Patil, both to revamp and restructure Bengaluru city. Read on…
[E Paper version from Rajeev Chandrashekhar’s site]
Rajeev Chandrashekar’s (Member of Parliament) thoughts on the BBMP Restructuring report:
[Courtesy: Rajeev Chandrashekhar’s Facebook Page]
#Bengaluru gets one more “Expert Committee” report! I have gone through the report on Bengaluru & #BBMP which has diagnosed the problems of city correctly – it tells that what is required for the city is Good citizen centric, transparent & accountable governance – but fails to give recommendations to address any of these core issues crippling our city! In fact, many of its diagnosis & ailments are very similar to what was done by#ABIDe in its PlanBengaluru2020 in 2010. Read: http://bit.ly/Vm1SWf & some of this ‘Expert Committee’s recommendations like new law for Bengaluru, citizen Involvement in ward committees & in development of wards & neighbourhoods have been made earlier in PB2020 too.
The report, made at the behest of the Chief Minister of #KarnatakaSiddaramaiah, fails to mention or make recommendations to address the core issue of mal-governance, corruption & vested interests that is crippling our proud city. The Report makes no mention of how to regulate rampant illegal encroachment and commercialization of public land; makes no mention on how to handle conflicts of interest in Corporators/Councilors; does not address the lack of accountability & transparency in the functioning of the BBMP & all the para-statals, except for mentioning financial audits of the issue of statutory planning as a tool to usher in integrity in contracting, zoning & development.
Read my statement on the report here: http://bit.ly/1K6Uipk & Deccan Chronicle: http://bit.ly/1fI8E2D
Since the Chief Minister has belatedly woken up to Bengaluru, I am resending him a copy of the PlanBengaluru2020 Document, which I had given to him in July 2013 after he became the Chief Minister, which he seems to have forgotten about.
We don’t need another report. What we need are Governance reforms.
Good Governance wake up call for Chief Minister By Rajeev Chandrasekhar Member of Parliament & Technology Entrepreneur Email: rajeev.c@nic.in
I have gone through the ‘Expert Committee’ report on Bengaluru and BBMP! While I am in agreement with the reports elaborate diagnosis of what ails our city – here is what I have to say to the Chief Minister at whose behest this has been done.
Many of its diagnosis and ailments are very similar to what was done by ABIDe in its PlanBengaluru2020 in 2010. Some of this ‘Expert Committee’s recommendation like Citizen involvement in ward committees and in development of wards and neighbourhoods have been made earlier in PB2020 too.
However, the report makes no recommendation to address the core issue of mal-governance, corruption and vested interests that is crippling our proud city.
The Report makes no mention of how to regulate rampant illegal encroachment and commercialization of public land. It makes no mention on how to handle conflicts of interest in Corporators/Councillors. It does not address the lack of accountability and transparency in the functioning of the BBMP and all the para-statals, except for mentioning financial audits. It does not address the issue of Statutory planning as a tool to usher in integrity in contracting, zoning and development.
Whilst making recommendations for splitting BBMP into five and creating another two Government agencies, there is no mention of how much extra all this is going to cost the hapless taxpayer. Increasing Government agencies and costs at a time, when people want less Government and more Governance is to miss the point of reforms and change completely.
There is a tendency for every Government to appoint its ‘expert’ committee. This is the Siddaramiah Government’s expert committee and it now has its report. For a Chief Minister who was elected on the plank of Good Governance two years ago in 2013, he has demonstrated remarkably little by way of Good Governance initiatives for our city even though all the para-statal agencies and Police report to him.
Further, he and his team had available with them all previous reports including Kasturirangan Report, Abide PB2020 ( I personally sent him a copy in 2013 when he became CM) that have highlighted the same problems year on year. But maybe he needed his own expert committee to tell him what citizens of Bengaluru have known for many years – that what is required is Good citizen centric, transparent and accountable governance!
So here’s my take – given Chief Minister’s questionable track record so far on Governance and reforms, be it with state or city, I see this BBMP Restructuring Committee report as just yet another political stunt by the honourable Chief Minister either aimed at further delaying the elections or perhaps misleading the electorate as he did in 2013, with his election plank of good governance.
Since the Chief Minister has belatedly woken up to Bengaluru, I am resending the copy of the PlanBengaluru2020 Document given to him in July 2013.
EXPECTED ADVICE IS OFTEN IGNORED
(Ashwin Mahesh‘s column in the Times of India about the BBMP Restructuring Committee’s recommendations to the government – having identified the problems fully, why hold back on pointing to the right solutions?) [Courtesy: Ashwin Mahesh’s Facebook Page]
If you read the Master Plans that BDA and other planning agencies produce, you’ll notice that they have a peculiar structure. In the preamble and the vision sections, they will list everything that is wrong, and all the errors that need to be urgently corrected. Having done this, the rest of the report will be devoted to making the same mistakes as in the past.
The BBMP Restructuring Committee’s report is also a bit like that, for the same reason. For a while, it seemed as if the committee understood what the challenges in the city are, and one hoped they would make targeted recommendations to address these. Looking at the final report, however, it is clear that one other thought has crept into their calculation – will the Chief Minister like our report, and will he implement it?
Over the years, governments at the Centre and States have set up many committees with this tacit instruction – “don’t recommend anything we may not like”. And obligingly, thousands of reports have been written with one eye on the PM or the CM, rather than with both eyes on the problem.
The irony is that even if implemented, such half-hearted efforts couldn’t really solve the problem. So, inevitably, some years later, someone else will conclude that we need to re-examine the whole thing again, because the previous committee did such a bad job. By being over-cautious to begin with, the authors of each report more or less ensure the very failures they were set up to avoid.
The Patil Committee report is the latest example of this pattern. It has done a thorough job of listing the problems, and a very half-hearted job of pointing to the solutions.
The major recommendations are that we should move to a 3-tier system – with citizen participation at the ward level, five empowered municipal corporations at the mid-level (instead of BBMP), and a comprehensive planning body at the top level. All of these are actually part of the 74th Constitutional Amendment passed in 1992, so there’s nothing new in the proposals themselves. What we need to look at is the ‘how’.
Clearly, there is a deficit in citizen participation in urban governance. But the committee sees this as only a ‘local’ problem. Citizens should have a say in ward affairs, but beyond that they should be happy with their corporators and MLAs running the show. They need not have a say in who their planning members should be, and they could have a say in electing the Mayors, if the CM agrees.
Similarly, everyone who has looked at urban problems knows that we need to devolve powers from the State government to the local councils and wards. But the committee’s solution is to devolve the participation of the CM. By their logic, he should be the chief minister, the portfolio minister for Bangalore, the Chairperson of the Regional Planning Authority (BMRDA), and the chairperson of the local planning body (the Greater Bangalore Authority, which would probably be an unconstitutional body, on top of everything else). Why? Because otherwise the CM might not agree to their ‘reforms’.
Another example – the city is growing tremendously fast, and its urban clusters have already spilled over beyond the boundaries of BBMP. And in the next 15-20 years, the growth in these areas will be even more significant. Ideally, therefore, the restructuring should have included the entire BDA area, and not only the BBMP region. The committee agrees with this view, but chooses to engage in the more limited exercise. Why? Becaue the government has asked it to focus only on this.
The irony is that the arguments in the report are quite good. But when it comes to actually recommending what is needed to set a new course, the committee has pulled a half-step back and settled for a combination of recommendations that could please the government, never mind if they aren’t good for the city or constitutional.
Tragic. I actually think the Chief Minsiter might accept better reform, if only the people around him gave proper advice and argued their positions strongly. When they themselves seem unconvinced about their ideas, and consciously dilute them, it is hardly fair to expect the CM to be totally convinced.
The report should also have been delivered faster. Nine months to write up a set of half-hearted proposals and to repeat things that are already in the constitution is way too long. If the committee had finished its job in three months, we could have held the new elections to the city on time, with the restructuring exercise also completed. Instead, the delay seems to fit all-too-nicely in putting BBMP under state government control.
The report makes a number of recommendations on administrative matters like improving financial management, maintaining better spatial records, digitisation of accounts, transparency in procurement, and so on. These are useful, certainly, but quite marginal to the core purpose of the restructuring exercise. For that we now have to hope that the CM will do more than what the committee has recommended.
Now, FIRs against those who park on Bengaluru footpaths
[Courtesy: The Times of India, A report by Arun Dev]
Wrong parking? You can’t get away by coughing up a fine of Rs 100 anymore. Cops have come with a new plan to deter violators: Invoke Section 283 of the Indian Penal Code which talks about punishment for causing danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation.
If your vehicle is found parked on the footpath or anywhere else obstructing traffic, you will be fined Rs 100 and vehicle handed over to the law and order police. As Section 283 is cognizable, it’ll require cops to file an FIR and send you to court.
Over the past 12 days, 536 people have been booked under this section. The drive will especially concentrate on the newly constructed TenderSURE roads.
That the fine amount under this section is limited to Rs 200 doesn’t worry cops. As any case booked will be a cognizable offence, the defaulter can get back his vehicle only after showing up in court. “In our city, time has more value than money. Therefore, fining someone with time is a better deterrent,” said a traffic police officer.
MA Saleem, additional commissioner of police (traffic), said the recently inaugurated TenderSURE roads will be under close watch to track parking violations. “Since these roads have been inaugurated, several cases of wrong parking have been noticed. We want some deterrence among drivers who park on footpaths blocking the way,” he said.
Cognizable offence
It means a police officer has the authority to make an arrest without a warrant; also, an investigation can be initiated with or without court’s permission. Police can file a First Information Report (FIR) only in cases of cognizable offences.
Section 283
Danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation — Whoever, by doing any act, or by omitting to take order with any property in his possession or under his charge, causes danger, obstruction or injury to any person in any public way or public line of navigation, shall be punished with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees.
BBMP Polls a Rare Opportunity for Bengaluru and Bangalore:
[by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw]
Bengaluru was once a little-known Indian city, but today it’s recognised by the world for its IT excellence. The upcoming Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections provide an excellent opportunity to transform Bengaluru into one of the best-governed smart cities in the country and a model for others to emulate. The goal should be to find new solutions for old challenges and come up with creative ideas for delivering a good quality of life in a sustainable and enduring manner. This is of crucial importance as the city’s population is projected to exceed 16 million by 2020 from 10 million today. It is in this context that the role of a strong, local elected body like the BBMP assumes crucial importance. Municipal authorities with long-term vision can help create suitable governance systems and infrastructure to ensure a good quality of life for every resident of this fast-expanding metropolis. Read on…
Pourakarmikas [Video (developed with the help of Radha Shreeniwas, Defence Colony resident, directed by Ranjani Naresh) about a day in the life of our Pourakarmikas. Source: DECORA Facebook Page]
Bengaluru needs a reboot by RK Mishra
[Courtesy: The Times of India, June 28, 2015]
Holding BBMP elections without delimitation exercise may neither serve the cause of democracy nor help governance. If elections are held as per the current ward list based on 2001 census, the largest ward will have over a lakh voters and the smallest just 25,000. Most wards will have over 50,000 voters each, making them too big to be governed well. Bengaluru is dying a slow death under the current BBMP structure and needs a reboot. It requires delimitation exercise to have wards whose population doesn’t exceed 25,000 along with administrative restructuring with a three tier governance structure in line with the 74th Constitutional Amendment. The first tier, Greater Bengaluru Authority comprising MPC (Metropolitan Planning Committee), should be the planning authority for Greater Bengaluru. The second tier of 3 to 5 municipal corporations with empowered mayors and financial devolution will lead to efficient municipal governance.
The third tier will ensure citizen participation in governance through ward committees for local planning and project implementation.But vested interests are opposing this exercise and forcing early elections. An impression is being created that Delhi’s trifurcation is a failure and Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai are functioning well with a single corporation. This needs to be countered so that the core of the BBMP restructuring idea is taken forward.
The real takeaways for Bengaluru from the four cities are as follows: Delhi Trifurcation is in trouble because it was undertaken sans any detailed study of relative strengths weaknesses of the three corporations. No economic parity or process re-engineering was done, no coordination mechanism devised and no finance commission set up to allocate cross finances across areas.
Mumbai 50% slums is no success story but their spread over a relatively smaller area, 460 sq km, helps. Mumbai is actually a regional story with seven corporations, including Thane, Navi Mumbai and Bhayander.
Kolkata Core Kolkata is small (less than 50 lakh) but it is a tale of three municipal corporations and 30 municipalities tied together by the MPC framework. Chennai They thought of three corporations of Chennai, Avadi and Tambaram but later went with amalgamation.The city’s small area of around 430 sq km and 60 lakh population helped manage it well backed by the directly elected mayor. Chennai outskirts gained through amalgamation.
New Horizon Public School, Indiranagar Girls Win Global Youth Tech Challenge for Brilliant App that Lets You Sell Your Trash
[Source: The Better India, reported by: Shreya Pareek]
These 14-year old girls grabbed the award for their app that helps make collection and disposal of dry waste easy. They defeated 400 other teams from 64 nations to bag an award of $10,000 at a global contest.
Five 14-year-old Bengaluru girls won the Technovation Challenge at a global pitch event at San Francisco, USA.
Sanjana Vasanth, N. Anupama, Mahima Mehendale, Swasthi P. Rao and B. Navyashree from New Horizon Public School, Indiranagar, won the award for their app Sellixo, which provides an online marketplace to users to buy and sell dry waste.
Inspired by PM’s Swachh Bharat Mission and Save the Girl child initiative, the team created the app to participate in Technovation, one of the largest global technology entrepreneurship program for young women. Read on…
Even the Prime Minister appreciated them and posted on his Facebook page.
Gearing up for a smooth run on 100-Feet Road
[Courtesy: By Prakruti PK, Bangalore Mirror Bureau]
Traffic police pinpoint problems, including lack of coordination between police personnel and erratic parking, and devise ways to mitigate the problems
It has long been established that Indiranagar’s 100-Feet Road is Bengaluru’s most ‘happening’ place, with a whopping 61 restaurants, lounge-bars, and pubs located on both sides of the road – so much so, that some people even describe it as the new Central Business District. Read on…
City group urges parties to field ‘clean’ candidates for BBMP elections
[Reports Nayantara N for TheNewsMinute]
Fed up with the lack of civic amenities in their neighbourhood, a group of the city’s residents have geared up to engage with politics in the upcoming BBMP polls.
Whitefield Rising – a group of individuals have gathered together to solve and address different forms of civic issues that plague the IT company-dominated area of Whitefield. With BBMP election to be held on July 28, volunteers are approaching political parties urging them to pitch “best” candidates for their wards.
Co-founder Nitya Ramakrishnan and her team at Whitefield Rising (WR) are focusing on getting good and hard-working candidates for 8 wards (of the total 15) who will address the issues faced by the residents in Mahadevapura zone.
A former IT professional herself, she claims that in terms of contribution of revenue per head in the economy, Mahadevapura zone is the “highest in the country”. Yet, the area lacks basic infrastructure, she says. Read on…
Please vote!
Mile by mile, they’ll beautify Bengaluru:
No more cribbing. Just take charge of the road in front of your office, and maintain it. This is the new mantra that’s gripping the corporates in Bengaluru.
Stop talking. Start doing. That’s the mantra more and more citizens in Bengaluru are adopting these days. The fever has now spread to corporates too. The new initiative launched on Independence Day, Adopt-a-Mile, aims to drive the cynicism towards government, into a movement of bringing in change. “I used to come to Bangalore during my summer vacation. The city was so beautiful then, but today, it has lost its beauty. We want to give back our city its beauty,” says Ananth Ramachandran, an executive working with a technology firm. The movement, started by five such people from different companies, will involve corporates who will take the responsibility of beautifying and maintaining a part of the road within the city, using their money meant to be spent on corporate social responsibility.
How does Adpot-a-Mile work? Ramachandran explains that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed between the corporates and the BBMP, underlining the work that the company will need to take up over two years. BBMP’s role in this will be that of facilitator. They will aid the companies with the permissions and the expertise that the company will need to maintain the adopted roads.The company will be responsible for its cleanliness and sanitation, safety, beautification, convenience and information kiosks. Read on…
BBMP set to penalise litterbugs:
[Courtesy: By Atul Chaturvedi, Bangalore Mirror Bureau]
Civic body to collect fine up to Rs 5,000 from those caught littering; shopkeepers will be penalised if their storefronts are found littered
Shopkeepers will be penalised if the area in front of their shops is littered, warns the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) administration. The move is aimed at improving cleanliness in commercial areas. Read on..
End of the car age: how cities are outgrowing the automobile
[A report from the UK based newspaper, The Guardian]
Cities around the world are coming to the same conclusion: they’d be better off with far fewer cars. So what’s behind this seismic shift in our urban lifestyles? Stephen Moss goes on an epic (car-free) journey to find out. Read on…
Have we really reached ‘peak car’? Vehicle traffic grew at a fearsome rate worldwide for decades … until 2007. Then came the perfect storm of an economic collapse, a digital revolution and major changes to urban lifestyles. But is this just a blip? Read on…
The dichotomy of being a Bengaluru citizens group – both fighting and cooperating with BBMP:
[A report from The NewsMinute by Abhay Shivnani]
Last week, Delhi saw its politicians getting their hands dirty, quite literally. Teeming garbage bins spilt over on to the streets of the national capital, as the sanitation workers were on strike for non-payment of their salaries for months on end. Amidst the stink, all three major parties sniffed a political opportunity and jumped into the fray to win the favour of Delhiites. While the resurgent Rahul Gandhi cashed in on the crisis by joining the strike of the MCD workers, the other two parties took a more hands-on approach by getting down to business with party cadres and leaders attempting to clear the mess. Obviously, neither AAP nor BJP’s photo-op cleaning was going to help clear the 15,000 tonnes of Delhi’s garbage. Bengaluru too has seen a colossal garbage crisis in 2012. When a laid-back and callous BBMP had allowed the Mandur and Mavallipura landfills become unscientific dump-yards that made life a living hell for the residents around, the villagers struck back by not allowing the garbage trucks to pass by. The result was thousands of tonnes of garbage strewn around the once ‘Garden City’. The stark difference between the Delhi and the Bengaluru episodes is the active participation of citizen groups in solving the city’s problems. Even in the more recent incident of the Varthur lake frothing, it was a citizens group – Whitefield Rising (WR) – that was at the forefront of not just highlighting the issue but also formulating solutions for it. WR had contacted the media with appalling pictures of the polluted froth. After a barrage of news channels played visuals of snow-like froth spilling over on loop, the authorities were woken up from their lull. WR continues to liaison with them to formulate short and long term solutions. Read on…
We are all suffering from urban amnesia TED talk by Naresh Narasimhan
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Naresh Narasimhan‘s hilarious talk actually brought to the forefront, a massive problem that we are facing as a city today – what he calls urban amnesia. Pictures of a bygone Bangalore showed people the reality of progress and made the audience rethink their vision for the city.
Naresh Narasimhan is an architect, urbanist, activist and creative entrepreneur. He is a partner at Venkataramanan Associates (VA), an architecture practice based in Bangalore, that saw a meteoric rise under his leadership. As co-founder of MOD Institute, a transnational collective of urban designers, researchers and curators, trustee of Imagine Bangalore and founder of Cobalt, a coworking space, Naresh has fuelled a variety of progressive causes in the city. He regularly advises the local government on infrastructure and urban design and has been instrumental in the city’s renewal, most recently in the cleaning up and rejuvenation of Bangalore’s oldest market.
Why is India so filthy?
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. The Ugly Indian is an anonymous collective that does not talk to media, wants no publicity and works with the motto – Only Work No Talk. However, they made an exception for TEDxBangalore so that they could open up the question of why we as Indians are okay with filthy public spaces? The tragedy of the commons – can we change it to the victory of the commons?
There’s a silent revolution brewing in India, and it’s called The Ugly Indian. It is anonymous, faceless and leaderless, and has seen thousands of citizens coming out to fix local civic problems following a simple motto: Kaam Chalu Mooh Bandh. Only Work No Talk. What started off as a series of social experiments in Bangalore in 2011, to see what it takes to change everyday ugly Indian behaviour in public spaces (littering, spitting paan, public urination and more), has now transformed into a nation-wide movement that is spreading virally – both on social media, and on the ground. The centrepiece of the TUI approach is the ‘spotfix ‘ where ugly spots are ‘fixed’ by citizens. There is no activism, no sloganeering, no lecturing, no finger-pointing and no ideological debates – just a sincere attempt to solve problems by focusing on a spot – using one’s own time, hands and money.
Peace wanted In Indiranagar
A television debate on how commercial activity in residential areas is being a burden on the existing infrastructure in Indiranagar.