Governance

In well-planned cities, the government makes the plans and the builders respond to that with project proposals - to build residential communities, commercial facilities, and so on. In our cities, the builders and individual plot owners make their proposals first, and the city then scrambles to figure out how to plan the city around that. The order in which we do things is itself wrong. Within this error, looking for solutions to 'manage' the way things are done is pointless. Which is why making the planning body for the city work - as per law - is important. People sometimes…

In well-planned cities, the government makes the plans and the builders respond to that with project proposals - to build residential communities, commercial facilities, and so on. In our cities, the builders and individual plot owners make their proposals first, and the city then scrambles to figure out how to plan the city around that. The order in which we do things is itself wrong. Within this error, looking for solutions to 'manage' the way things are done is pointless. Which is why making the planning body for the city work - as per law - is important. People sometimes…

The documents/ replies that I have received from various offices of BBMP in the last five months, to my RTI query on illegal hoardings, are piled up before me. Yet, they have no data that I asked for. Pic: Akshatha It has been precisely five months since I filed an RTI application with the Advertisement department of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seeking information about legal and illegal advertisement hoardings in the city. (If you haven’t read the first piece you can read it here). And today as I write this second post about the status of my application, I…

The documents/ replies that I have received from various offices of BBMP in the last five months, to my RTI query on illegal hoardings, are piled up before me. Yet, they have no data that I asked for. Pic: Akshatha It has been precisely five months since I filed an RTI application with the Advertisement department of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seeking information about legal and illegal advertisement hoardings in the city. (If you haven’t read the first piece you can read it here). And today as I write this second post about the status of my application, I…

As I walked to and from my daughter's home (J P Nagar 3rd Phase to and fromJayanagar 4th T Block) I noticed the following good citizens of the city and state: Several young men on two-wheelers with yellow-and-red Karnataka flags, yelling, "bEkE bEku! nyAyA bEku!" They stopped near me to re-group. I talked to one of them (indeed, a foolhardy thing to do)...and asked, "nyAyA (justice) for what?" The young man said, "We've been told to go around the area, saying this." Not even the pretence of understanding what the issue is. A group of men sitting under the Karnataka…

As I walked to and from my daughter's home (J P Nagar 3rd Phase to and fromJayanagar 4th T Block) I noticed the following good citizens of the city and state: Several young men on two-wheelers with yellow-and-red Karnataka flags, yelling, "bEkE bEku! nyAyA bEku!" They stopped near me to re-group. I talked to one of them (indeed, a foolhardy thing to do)...and asked, "nyAyA (justice) for what?" The young man said, "We've been told to go around the area, saying this." Not even the pretence of understanding what the issue is. A group of men sitting under the Karnataka…

Today marks my 12th day in Bengaluru and I am proud to say my desire to take pictures of every single passing cow has subsided. Since arriving the weekend before last, I filled my phone’s camera roll with photos of cattle, likely confusing many passersby who have shared the roads with these guys their whole lives. I laughed out loud on several occasions, like when a large group of them walked right past my gate one evening, or when I moved out of the way of one only to have it move the same way putting me right back in…

Today marks my 12th day in Bengaluru and I am proud to say my desire to take pictures of every single passing cow has subsided. Since arriving the weekend before last, I filled my phone’s camera roll with photos of cattle, likely confusing many passersby who have shared the roads with these guys their whole lives. I laughed out loud on several occasions, like when a large group of them walked right past my gate one evening, or when I moved out of the way of one only to have it move the same way putting me right back in…

It's disgusting to see the many small ways (adding up to large totals) in which the catering contract staff on Southern Railways cheat the passengers. On the 26th of July, 2016, I travelled by the Bangalore-Chennai Exp (train no. 12609) to Chennai, and on the 27th, I travelled back by the same train.   An elderly gentleman asked the man selling bottles of mineral water, "How much is a bottle?" and the answer was, "Rs.30". Even before I could react, another alert passenger caught the man and said, "It's Rs.15 a bottle, why are you giving twice that price?" The…

It's disgusting to see the many small ways (adding up to large totals) in which the catering contract staff on Southern Railways cheat the passengers. On the 26th of July, 2016, I travelled by the Bangalore-Chennai Exp (train no. 12609) to Chennai, and on the 27th, I travelled back by the same train.   An elderly gentleman asked the man selling bottles of mineral water, "How much is a bottle?" and the answer was, "Rs.30". Even before I could react, another alert passenger caught the man and said, "It's Rs.15 a bottle, why are you giving twice that price?" The…