Articles by Navya P K

Rajvir Pratap Sharma, head of BMTF (Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force), has been in the news recently for taking on the state government. While Sharma acted in accordance to BMTF's powers, against BBMP officers who permitted unauthorised constructions, the state government had tried to transfer him. Government first tried to bring BMTF under BBMP, then there were the BBMP officers who went on strike asking for Sharma's removal. Finally, Sharma was accused of constructing an illegal building, and government ordered his transfer based on this, in August. Sharma challenged the order in CAT (Central Administrative Tribunal), and won. CAT rapped the…

Lok Satta party announced two of its candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in a press conference on October 4th. Shanthala Damle and Dr Meenakshi Bharath are the two candidates, who will contest from Basavanagudi and Malleswaram constituencies respectively. The party also invited members from the general public who are interested in contesting elections under Lok Satta ticket.Dr Meenakshi has contested as Lok Satta candidate in the 2010 BBMP ward elections. She is currently the Bangalore district President of the party. A practising gynaecologist, she is also active in the civic initiatives Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT) and Citizens…

BBMP has created an Action Plan on waste management for the next 1.5 years. It will submit the plan in High Court in a hearing on November 6th. HC has been hearing two PILs that are asking for BBMP to dispose of solid waste properly. Two parties - an Indiranagar resident named Kavitha Shankar, and an advocate G R Mohan - had filed separate cases in HC. The two cases have clubbed together by the Court. In these cases, last month the court had directed BBMP to collect segregated waste, to put realistic penalties on citizens who do not segregate…

Bengaluru's apartments are yet again at the receiving end of civic agencies' policies. This time over Waste management. While BBMP is pushing the pedal to ensure solid waste is segregated, it says it will not collect garbage from apartments. Some time back, large apartments were asked to set up their own Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) since BWSSB did not have the capacity or coverage to process their sewage. Some were suddenly slapped steep fines last year by KSPCB because of an obscure rule. Now BBMP has ordered that apartments should have their own garbage processing facilities by December 1st. Within…

While they are struggling to figure out the BBMP's muddled up garbage management policy, apartment owners are hit with tanker water price hikes.In the last 3-4 months water tanker prices have risen quite steeply, especially since the city's water crisis became severe. This applies to apartments in both outskirts and old areas. Most do not have functioning borewells, as opposed to individual houses. Bannerghatta Neighbourhood Association (BANA), a collective of 25 apartments along Bannerghatta Road, has faced sharp price hikes in the last few months. BANA Treasurer Shankar Bharadwaj says that the price varies from Rs 450 to Rs 600…

Trees were cut, roads were dug up and traffic diverted for the Agara-Sirsi Ciricle signal-free corridor project. BDA vehemently defended the project while residents in Koramangala questioned the logic and took it to the court. Now a year since the struggle, Koramangala residents feel vindicated. The government-appointed committee that looked into the project has recommended that the project be dropped.In July, High Court had ordered that the government committee should engage with citizens and give its recommendations on the project. HC had given this order in a petition filed by residents and civic associations. The committee was formed by ex-Chief…

Last year, state government got flak for promoting the teaching of Bhagavat Gita in schools. Activists and educationists had branded this as ‘saffronisation' of education. But, for decades, Hindu organisations have been promoting Hinduism in schools throughout the state. Prominent of these is Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an organisation that actively promotes Hindutva. VHP holds exams, competitions, sloka classes etc for schools in the city. Ramakrishna Mission in Ulsoor, and ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), are other organisations that have similar programmes. However, such work has continued without getting the ‘saffronisation' tag. Culture comes from religion VHP has been…

After a long tussle with the state government, Rajvir P Sharma of BMTF (Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force) won, when his transfer order was revoked last week. State government had ordered his transfer on August 14th, after he chargesheeted many BBMP officers. Rajvir P Sharma won the case in CAT on September 7th. Pic Sankar C G Sharma had filed a case asking for his transfer to be revoked, at the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), a court that looks into service disputes of government officials. On September 7th, CAT ordered in favour of Sharma, saying that he could complete his tenure…

BBMP spends hundreds of crores annually on projects like road widening and flyovers, while allocating very low amounts for education, health, welfare etc. Dalit Bahujan Movement (DBM), a city-based group for SC/ST welfare, has been demanding useful schemes and funds for the community. Venkatesh M, an activist formerly with  state-level Dalit organisations, formed DBM in 2007 with the specific aim of getting government funding and schemes for SC/STs. It was in late 1970s that the central government initiated separate funding for SC/STs. Government announced the Special Component Plan (SCP) for SCs and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) for STs. Under SCP/TSP,…

After the High Court ordered the stay on signal-free corridor work in Koramangala, citizens have now formally been asked to suggest alternatives. A sub-committee, comprising six citizen representatives and a few government representatives, have been asked to submit alternate plans by August 25th.This sub-committee was formed by, and has to report to, a government-appointed committee. According to the court order, the government-appointed committee should hear concerns of citizens and submit a report to the court on September 15th. Court will then make a final decision on the project on October 5th.The first hearing of the government's committee - headed by…