Whitefield

All the news about Whitefield, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.

Unofficial emergency: CAA protestors bundled into autos, cars, buses!

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CAA protests

Never has Section 144 been imposed for fear of peaceful protests. Because Karnataka is a BJP-ruled state, it is obvious that the law that prohibits “unlawful assembly” of four or more people is being misused here in the name of public safety. Today, several people who are against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) violated the … Read more

VIDEO: How people are violating the Bus Priority Lane

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Bus Priority lanes

The Bus Priority Lane from Marathahalli to Silk Board junction is being appreciated by several commuters. However, there are naysayers and violators galore as well. Around 1200 people were fined recently for using the dedicated lane along this corridor. While the first fortnight was spent educating the vehicle users about not using the lane, the … Read more

Smart parking to become operational across city from January 14; trial begins on Kasturba Road

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smart parking

If all goes with the pilot project on Kasturba Road that began on December 14, 2019, smart parking will become a reality across 85 roads in Bengaluru from January 14 onwards in a phased manner. Some of the other thoroughfares include MG Road, Brigade Road, Residency Road, Cunningham Road, Commercial Street, Avenue Road, Nrupathunga Road, … Read more

Do you know your corporator? B.PAC begins awareness campaign across Bengaluru!

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#knowyourcorporator
Do you know your corporator? B.PAC begins awareness campaign across Bengaluru! 1
Do you know your corporator? B.PAC begins awareness campaign across Bengaluru! 2
Do you know your corporator? B.PAC begins awareness campaign across Bengaluru! 3
Do you know your corporator? B.PAC begins awareness campaign across Bengaluru! 4
Do you know your corporator? B.PAC begins awareness campaign across Bengaluru! 5
Do you know your corporator? B.PAC begins awareness campaign across Bengaluru! 6


By Zahid H Javali

During the elections, the MLAs and MPs impact the state and country, but if you want to know who impacts your immediate neighbourhood the most, it is your corporator. So, do you know your corporator? Do you know whom to vote for the next corporation elections? Have you ever gone to a Ward Committee meeting to voice your grievances? Have you complained on any of the phone apps and websites about civic issues? The culmination of all these efforts is the vote you give during the municipal polls. Therefore, knowing your corporator is critical.

No longer should one’s vote be based on a political party, caste, creed or business interests. Is the person really competent enough to address your neighbourhood concerns? Do they have the social service streak in them to stand up for what is right and walk the extra mile to seek justice? That’s the person you need to vote for. And this can begin by knowing your corporator. However, this is only the first step. The next phase is to engage with the corporator and ensure that they act on your complaints. Persist until they deliver. Form a team of people to pressurise them more. Expose them through the local media with hyper local publications like us.

The Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC), a local non-profit, is doing something about this abject lack of information by spreading social media awareness campaigns on every ward corporator of Bengaluru. Using the data from the BBMP, the agency is using its social media platforms to spread awareness about the various corporators who govern the 198 wards in the city. Their names, photographs, addresses and phone numbers are being given in addition to a list of their roles and responsibilities. The underlying idea is for the citizens to become part of the solution.

However, we would urge B.PAC to also unearth other data like the promises the corporators have made and what they delivered in their tenure; the number of criminal cases against them, their achievements and educational qualifications, among others. This is something that Free A Billion, a non-profit did in Mumbai recently (see the photo above). Since most people who are unaware of their corporator need to have some idea of what the elected representatives have done before casting their votes, it would be better to give this essential information for the voters to decide. After all, not every resident will either have the courage, inclination or need to interact with the corporator. They will be a minority. However, the majority can assess the candidate by the pros and cons about the corporators standing for civic elections. Information is power. Know your corporator before casting your precious vote. It will make a difference to your life!

Are you an outstanding startup? Apply for national startup awards before Dec 31!

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national startup awards 2020
Are you an outstanding startup? Apply for national startup awards before Dec 31! 7

For the first time, the Government of India is calling for applications from outstanding startups, accelerators and incubators for the National Startup Awards 2020. The last date is December 31, 2019. You have about two weeks to apply, so hurry.

The cash prizes range from Rs 5 lakh (startups) to Rs 15 lakh (accelerators and incubators). The winners and four runner-ups in 35 sub sectors will  get to present their solutions to interested corporates and government agencies for potential pilot projects or even obtain work orders.

The underlying idea is to promote innovative solutions that are feasible and scalable to solve the many problems that India faces. The remedies should be sustainable, responsible and measurable. There are special categories for women-led startups, rural development and campus startups. Importantly, the startup should be operational for atleast three years. Some sub sectors that you can apply for include clean energy, food processing, diagnostics, medical devices, life sciences, big data, life sciences, financial literacy, robotics, cyber security, space tech solutions, traffic management, and cloud computing, among others.

The 35 sub sectors come under 12 categories that you can apply for, including agriculture, education, energy, enterprise technology, finance, food, health, industry, space, security, tourism, and urban services. If you need more info, you can call the Toll Free Number: 1-800-115-565 or Email: dipp-startups@nic.in, or visit the website of Startup India. The initiative is supported by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.

Good luck!

 

Citizens take bus today to popularise Priority Bus Lane system between Silk Board and Marathahalli!

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Nimbus Express
Citizens take bus today to popularise Priority Bus Lane system between Silk Board and Marathahalli! 8
Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao, BMTC chief C Shikha and actor-activist Chetan (in front) travelled by bus today. Picture courtesy: Srinivas Alavilli

Several citizens and resident welfare groups are participating in a ‘bus yatra’ today aptly called ‘Nimbus Express’ to promote the new Priority Bus Lane system of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). The project began on November 15, where the left lanes are marked out only for buses and ambulances, and anyone else encroaching this lane will be penalised.

The idea is to increase the average speed from 10-20 kilometres per hour, so that the six lakh population that works in around this part of Outer Ring Road uses buses and abandons their vehicles that are congesting this important thoroughfare, and causing both air and noise pollution.

If the bus lane is successful, one can expect the traffic density on ORR to be considerably reduced. Therefore, the residents are asking every worker to keep their vehicles behind and hop on the bus from either Silk Board or Marathahalli bus stop today. Already, there are several citizens who have reported that their travel time was halved by this new initiative. Whitefield Rising, the residents group says, “Regular bus commuters say the #BusPriorityLane has helped. Commute time has reduced. It is the VIP corridor for the common man.” Ofcourse, there are some misgivings about this move too. Says Sujoy Batabyal: “First build the infrastructure for bus passengers. Foot over bridge should be there every 100/200 meters for crossing the road. Trucks and lorries should not run on the Outer Ring Road, only then can it be more successful.”

Nonetheless, what is gratifying is that the residents are popularising this move wholeheartedly by coming on to the roads and holding placards to educate the vehicle users to stop encroaching the bus lanes for smoother movement of BMTC buses. “Today, from Eco Space in Bellandur to Agara in HSR Layout, it took me just 10 minutes,” says HSR Layout resident Lalithamba BV. “If 1000 people use the buses, it’s 1000 less cars on the road. Imagine how much space 1000 cars can take compared to 20 buses?” A few days before, citizens took to the streets holding placards and asking them to use buses instead. If the ridership goes up, the buses will increase proportionately. If they fail, the service could even be withdrawn. Srinivas Alavilli, co-founder, Citizens for Bangalore called all CEOs to opt for buses by saying, “India will be a developed nation when CEOs take the bus.”

To support this citizen initiative, police commissioner Bhaskar Rao, Sandalwood actor, BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar, BBMP Additional Commissioner D Randeep, Joint Commissioner (Traffic) Ravikanthe Gowda, BMTC Director (Security & Vigilance) Anupam Agarwal, BMTC chief C Shikha, and activist Chetan also travelled with the public today. This BMTC initiative is supported by BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike), BTP (Bengaluru Traffic Police) and DULT (Directorate of Urban Land Transport).

If Metro, Metrolite, suburban rail, and priority bus lanes work the way they are envisaged, much of the pollution, congestion and traffic chaos can come down. That should be the government’s first priority.

Activists petition chief secretary to take action on BBMP for violating RTI Act

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RTI
Activists petition chief secretary to take action on BBMP for violating RTI Act 9
Activists petition chief secretary to take action on BBMP for violating RTI Act 10
Vijay Dennis, founder-president, RTI Workers Seva Samithi

In a letter dated December 9, 2019, the two-year-old Kudlu-based Karnataka RTI Workers Seva Samithi (KRTIWSS) has complained to the chief secretary of Karnataka to take action on BBMP offices in Begur Road and HSR Layout for not providing information about building violations in their jurisdiction as mandated by the Right to Information Act, 2005. The BBMP was to answer the queries within 30-45 days, but the civic agency failed to do it even after 79 days and counting.

In the last two years, over 40 RTI queries were made to the Bommanahalli BBMP office, however, the replies were never satisfactory. “They would give vague information, or never respond at all, or quote one fake RTI circular that a person can only file a query only three times a year,” said Vijay Dennis, the founder of the KRTIWSS.

Some of the complaints by KRTIWSS had to do with footpath encroachments across HSR Layout and Begur Road, and rampant building violations on stormwater drains, among other things. They have also filed a complaint with the Lok Ayukta about footpath encroachments by commercial establishments in HSR Layout.

“The BBMP officials just issue the showcause notice to the accused, take bribe and keep quiet without taking any action,” alleged Dennis. “Even if one building is demolished, the others will get scared, and not make the same mistake.” His fight continues. Will the authorities respond remains to be seen.

 

HSR Layout police release video to promote women safety app for emergencies

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suraksha women safety app
HSR Layout police release video to promote women safety app for emergencies 11

If you understand Kannada, go ahead and watch this video shot by the HSR Layout police. If not, just download the ‘Suraksha’ phone app from Google Play store or Apple’s App Store, register with your phone number and address, assign two emergency contacts and you are good to go.

In an emergency, just open the app and press the red button for five times. If you don’t respond to the police call, the phone will automatically capture a ten-second video and send it to the cops. An alert with your geographical address will go out to the cops and your two emergency contacts. The police promise to reach you within nine minutes. It is a safety app that is particularly helpful to women.

Several latest reviews on Google Play complained that the app did not allow them to register. However, when we tried it today, it did, and quite smoothly with no hiccups. One user has also benefitted from this app.

Says Akila Venkat on Google Play: “I read about the app in an online news portal and immediately downloaded it. I had to use it to report a case of stalking. Within seconds of pressing the help button, I got a call from the police to know the details. Within minutes, two police officers came from nowhere and handled the stalker by taking him to the station. Long story short, the app works in cae of emergencies!”

We would love to hear it from you. Let us know if this app helped you. Just WhatsApp us at this number: +919880585748.

Parents of Bangalore’s first Bicycle Mayor injured in ‘city of cars, not people’

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sathya sankaran's father
Parents of Bangalore's first Bicycle Mayor injured in 'city of cars, not people' 12
Parents of Bangalore's first Bicycle Mayor injured in 'city of cars, not people' 13
Pictures courtesy: Sathya Sankaran

By Qamar ZJ

Despite cries for pedestrian-friendly roads and city infrastructure, Bengaluru continues to be mismanaged by an apathetic corporation and an even-more disoriented state government, irrespective of which party occupies the highest seat. The latest diatribe against such a bad road infrastructure came from the city’s first Bicycle Mayor Sathya Sankaran. Calling it the ‘city of cars, not people’, Sathya gave the examples of his parents who fell victims to Bengaluru’s appalling road infrastructure only recently. 

Tweeting to the city police and BBMP Commissioner, Sathya wrote: “After the bad fall my father had on Sanjaynagar Main Road, it was my mother’s turn near New BEL Road bus stand. (She) Tripped over construction material left all over the place. This is a city for cars not people.”

The twitterrati was quick to react to this latest development by wishing his parents speedy recovery. In addition, they shared their thoughts on the city’s civic woes.

Citizen activist Srinivas Alavilli, the co-founder of Citizens for Bangalore, said, “We have become a city of machines and people have no place left. We shall take it back.”

The proactive Whitefield Rising resident group agreed with Srinivas by stating, “Our streets are strewn with debris, garbage, potholes and missing slabs.”

Vinay Kamble wanted to know if the government can be sued for this terrible incident. If you have the same question, yes, you can, if the injury happened due to a pothole, an open manhole or drain. In a recent case, the Karnataka High Court ordered the BBMP to compensate one such victim.

Vinay Sreenivasa had a similar story to share. “My mum in law also hurt her knee on a badly-laid footpath on Malleswaram 15th Cross. Unless we fix our pavements, we fail all the elderly and differently-abled in our city, and all of ourselves.”

Rajkumar Dugar recommended one measure that could rectify this issue. “This problem will reduce the day we have names of BBMP engineers and contractors displayed at every road with penalty clause for any damage to road. Citizens are made to cough up for the slightest mistake. Why not these people too?

Reacting to the incident, a representative of Save Harlur campaign made a stark statement: “This city is not even made for cars”. Another resident asked chief minister YS Yeddiyurappa to “transfer all inefficient officers”.

Only Balaji had an ironic twist to the controversy by questioning Sathya’s mission of sustainable mobility by saying, “And you have been misleading gullible people to cycle on such dangerous roads.”

 

 

 

 

Youngster tweets, resolves a problem and makes Rs 500!

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Arun Bothra

Dipika Bajpai, the award-winning and dynamic former Deputy Conservator of Forests in Bangalore, praised a middleman the other day. Actually, it was a boy. She was reacting to an impressive story shared by Bhubaneshwar IPS officer Arun Bothra who summed up the tale by saying, “We are a nation of middlemen.” And Dipika responded with: “What a novel and nobel way of employment.”

Why are these civil servants so impressed with the boy, you ask? According to Bothra, this youngster apparently helped a senior citizen’s legal issue by tweeting about it to the cops. After looking at the grouse on Twitter, Bothra apparently invited the harassed citizen to his office, and resolved the issue. But what surprised him most was the passing remark by the elderly gentleman. “While leaving he told that a young boy in his area tweets for others. Charges Rs. 500/- for every resolved issue,” tweeted Bothra.

Clearly, where there is an opportunity, there is money to be made. The tweet received over 238 comments, was retweeted over 600 times and registered over 2500 likes.

However, Bothra did clarify that only 5-10% of complaints are resolved through Twitter. The rest is through the respective police stations.

Here are some of the best comments on Twitter about this boy’s side venture:

Aishwarya P: On a positive side, we can appreciate the boy for using his skill and time to earn money and also enabling others to solve their issues. After all, what he is rendering is also a service. I believe he is much better than those who depend on parents or govt for money.

Sitanshu Mahapatra: The Boy is the Entrepreneur of the Year👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾

Sandip: Is he mentioned anywhere that he is doing social service? If not, then he is doing nothing wrong. You must have heard the dialogue “if you are good at something never do it for free”.

Arun Chopra: He’s making money out of his education while doing social service, better than selling pakoras.

C J Karira: He saw a business opportunity! Fifty years ago, letter writers sitting outside GPOs did a similar job… only difference is that paper sheet has become smartphone and pen the finger.

Syeda Sabaun Noor: Wow!!! This thing is making us less of a community… Everyone is doing a side business.. sad.

Jay Jagdev: These jobs carry more respectable names like Advisor, Consultants…

No footpaths for foot soldiers! Only CCTVs can check traffic violations!

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MG Road footpath

TenderSure footpaths in central Bangalore are the toast of the city for their neatly-designed spaces for pedestrians. However, on MG Road, this has helped two-wheeler riders more than the walkers as this video proves. Clearly, where there is a way, there is a vehicle!

The only way to remove illegalities on roads and footpaths is to equip all the high density roads with high-end CCTVs for automatic traffic violations like speeding, footpath riding, overtaking, cutting signals and so on. This will bring order where none exist. Importantly, three such violations should result in automatic cancellation of driving licences for a year. No human involved means no corruption either. Will the central ministry of transport implement this immediately please?

The video above by Anantha Subramanyam says the story of footpath encroachment in just 30 seconds. A must-watch.

 

BBMP launches ‘Free The Tree’ initiative; will remove hundreds of treeguards across the city

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#freethetree

By Zahid H Javali

It is a travesty of the times. Activists, and non-profit organisations team up with civic agencies to plant saplings and erect tree guards with much fanfare. Later, the sapling grows into a tree, and the metal barricade is still there, stifling its growth. In addition, the trees planted on footpaths touch the live wires above them, posing a danger to everyone around.

Thankfully, the BBMP seems to have realised this as Commissioner BH Anil Kumar, who appears to be making the right noises ever since he took over, began a citywide ‘Free The Tree’ campaign today in Malleswaram. Hundreds of tree guards will go under the cutter in the next few days. However, we urge him to ensure that this is made a mandatory exercise at every ward where one person is only in charge of ensuring that the trees are looked after. Importantly, they should chop the trees that had taken over the footpaths and the roads and also touching the live wires. In addition, a heavy penalty needs to be levied on those who park on footpaths meant for pedestrians. This has become rampant across the city.

Though the formal launch was today, the BBMP’s forest department and citizens, including those going by the monicker The Ugly Indians began the campaign a few days earlier. They freed 17 trees each in Indiranagar and HSR Layout. More will follow like it happened today in Malleswaram.

Resident Uday Chopda has some words of caution and constructive feedback about this issue. “They should not cement the pavement as trees don’t get water, nor does the ground water get re-charged,” he says. “Every tree should have at least one box of 2ft by 2ft for the water to seep in. They should sow saplings at places where trees are cut for development like Indiranagar 100 Ft Road. All shops and houses have either removed the tree in front of the property or they cut; please make it mandatory to grow in such areas.”

Dear BBMP, let #freethetree campaign not remain an adhoc measure, but a consistent effort by you.