Story of the season: Beating cash-crunch in cities
As cash-crunch hits ATMs post-demonetisation, many people are finding alternative ways to pay the monthly bills and commitments. People living in cities have comparatively less worries in tackling this situation, as technology comes to help.
>> Read our guide on Many options for cashless transactions, to help ease cash-crunch.
>> Much is being said about ewallets. How does ewallet help? Here’s an article: A guide to e-wallets.
Also read: What demonetisation means for common man on Chennai streets
Elevated roads and public transport in cities
R K Misra, who is one of the proponents of elevated corridors in Bengaluru, speaks in detail about the project in this interview with Citizen Matters: Elevated corridors will facilitate public transport: R K Misra.
The interview kickstarted a debate.In a counter argument to R K Misra’s views, theatre director Prakash Belawadi and Bengaluru-based architect Naresh Narasimhan wrote why elevated corridors are out of date and out of joint.
A techie from Bengaluru, Balaji Chitra Ganesan, argued on how elevated roads can help separate long-distance traffic, freeing up roads for cyclists and pedestrians.
Signal-free corridors and commuter railway
Meanwhile, a signal-free corridor has left residents of South Bengaluru in the lurch. Public consultation before the project would have helped ease troubles, writes Amith Pallavoor Subramaniam.
Recently a new railway station was launched in the city at Hoodi to help more people to reach their destinations faster without hassle. More such stations in parts of the city around ORR will help commuters, writes Khader B Syed in this article: Hoodi railway station helps 3000 people everyday, now needs BMTC feeder.
Bracing for a tough summer
BWSSB is getting ready to mitigate water crisis in coming summer, for the first time. Water supply plans for 110 villages added to BBMP in 2008 will need to have state plan, as international agencies have refused to lend money due to lack of a permanent water source. Read: BWSSB prepares for summer of 2017 on war footing.
Saving lakes with artificial islands
PNLIT Trust has created Artificial Floating Islands (AFIs)in Puttenahalli lake in J P Nagar. It is an innovative way to improve water quality and keep the lake clean, writes PNLIT Trustee Usha Rajagopalan in her blog post.
Radio stories
Farmers ask Bengaluru to stand with them
A solidarity meeting held at the Institute of Agricultural Technologists on Queen’s Road on November 13th demanded that Bengaluru stand with farmers in distress. Read the full report here.
Stories from the toy village
What is life like, for toymakers from Chennapatna? Listen to their story in their own voice: Toymaker narrates the story of Chennapatna toys
Tech for better cities
Train commuters design bot for train timings
They use emjois to denote trains and stations. They make use of Telegram app to check train timings. Read this story of techies making use of tech to help each other.
Maps for traffic solution
Volunteers from Whitefield Rising with the help of MapsHalli have found a way to analyze traffic problems using Google traffic data. Read this blogpost for more.
Urban spotlight
Guidelines say 20-25% of the areas in urban landscape should be free for recreation and greenery. However, at local levels, the rules are constantly flouted, reducing the green space. Read: How green is my city?
In Chennai, citizens’ efforts are on to reduce waste, by upcycling. Read: Upcycling: A citizen’s guide to creatively reducing landfill waste
You have surely seen those heroes stalking heroines in movies, and would have read about many inspired stories that end up in tragedy. A Chennai PhD scholar takes on Tamil film industry over stalking, using social media and internet.
News from us
We are looking for more writers in Chennai: Details here.
St Joseph’s College in Bengaluru hosted MediaCon2016 – a national level media fest. We were the media partners for it, via CoMediaLab. Read the report here.
Read what I did in Kathmandu, and our plans for future: Towards more data-based, investigative journalism in India.
Take a look at some upcoming events in Bengaluru, here.
Here’s how you can interact with your fellow citizens and our editorial team.
- Submit articles for Bengaluru and Chennai! We run both citizen journalism and professionally authored stories, commentary and posts.
- Submit any government document(s) you have that reveals some decision or data from any city in India.
- Send us a lead or alert related to Bengaluru.
- Submit events to Bengaluru Citizen Matters.
- Join the FB groups and get connected: Bengaluru Matters | Chennai Matters
Until next week,
Shree D N
Associate Editor
Citizen Matters
