How Residents Watch was recognised for being the voice of the people
By NIRMALA G
Residents Watch is in esteemed company. Last month, the Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NDF) nominated its editor Zahid H Javali for the ‘Media Person of the Year’ award for 2018. He was one among the eight finalists chosen from thousands of nominations across Bangalore. Though he didn’t win the title, NBF CEO Sridhar Pabbisetty said ‘Every nominee is a winner’ and we tend to agree. Zahid was shortlisted from among thousands of entries that NBF received from all over the city. Ernst & Young monitored and whetted the nominations to arrive at 200 entries. A jury of over two dozen accomplished individuals poured over the nominations and picked 41 finalists, Zahid being one of them. In the ‘Media’ category, he was one among eight.
The nomination should hopefully shed light on why it’s important for grassroots community journalism to thrive. If every journalist adopts their neighbourhood and remains apolitical and non-partisan in delivering news and views, much can be achieved. As the HSR Layout edition of Residents Watch has shown. Since HSR has a large part of floating population, many of our milestones go unnoticed. Therefore, without further ado, here go some of the success stories we have been part of through our proactive role in bettering HSR.
A SOCIAL MEDIA GROUP LIKE NO OTHER
After two years of reporting on HSR, we set up the Residents Watch Whatsapp Group involving government officials, local politicians, civic activists and members of resident welfare associations. A year later, we included the entire Bangalore media, so they could report on certain issues citywide and pressure the government officials and netas alike. This group was unique to HSR. There is no other monthly neighbourhood glossy magazine in Bangalore or perhaps India. And there is no neighbourhood-specific social media platform that involves the Bangalore media. There are sector-wise or block-wise associations but this is a group that unites not only the seven sector associations but also the many apartment associations in HSR Layout. Today, we have moved on to Telegram because it’s much easier to manage and can accommodate 10,000 members unlike Whatsapp’s limit of 256.
THE KCDC PROTEST: A RECORD OF SORTS
In October 2015, Residents Watch listened to the people and announced a protest. They were demanding a protest against the inhuman conditions prevailing both within and outside the government composting plant, the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC). Not only was the stench from the mixed waste reaching Hosur Road, but all across HSR Layout. That’s a radius of 3-5 kilometres. In addition, the effluents from the plant were contaminating the ground water and the adjacent Somasundrapalya Lake. KCDC had also encroached the lake and even dumped Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) that had become an ever-growing mountain, and a ticking time bomb. The plant officials were dumping mud over it to avoid a fire, but it is still a dormant bomb nonetheless.
The protest involved persuading the residents to name, register and set up a residential association to fight this battle and KHHSP RWA (Kudlu Haralukunte Hosapalya Somasundrapalya Residents Welfare Association) was born. Within ten days of our announcement that was also covered by the Bangalore media, chief minister Siddaramaiah rushed to the plant. It was a record because no CM had visited the plant in its 40-year history. He promised much but delivered nothing. Zahid H Javali, the editor of Residents Watch anchored the three-hour protest complete with stage, chairs and speakers. Despite BJP MLA Satish Reddy’s initial reluctance, we convinced him that an all-party delegation of local politicians on stage was the best way out lest the residents conclude that it was a BJP-sponsored agitation. Until then, no RWA or any NGO could boast of such a crowd, not even the MLA who used to fetch garment workers in buses for all his protests. The result of the protest was that the government, which was planning to increase the capacity of the plant from 500 to 1000 tonnes, brought it down to 150 tonnes. And now, it has been further brought down to 80 tonnes from last month. It is a victory for the people and by the people.
ILLEGAL BUILDINGS
No RWA wanted to identify any commercial buildings violating rules. They did not want to upset the local MLA and corporator or the house owners violating them. Even the residents didn’t want to come forward because the BBMP officials could harass them like the way the other neighbours were subjected to earlier. So Residents Watch did the next best thing. We flagged all the most glaring building violations in HSR and publicised it in every social media group. We also cited the biggest violation — an upcoming mall in a residential area — and wrote to the CM himself. We also sent a press release to the rest of the Bangalore media about it and some of them covered it too. The next time the CM came to HSR, when the people complained to him about an inefficient BBMP Assistant Executive Engineer, the CM suspended him on the spot. Even more recently, we flagged three eateries operating from basements and the BBMP shut them down after three months of intense pressure both in the Residents Watch and our Telegram group.
FLEX BANNERS
In the most glaring case, the CM had come to inaugurate a park in Sector 3 and left several flex banners in his wake. We posted pictures of them and asked his party men to remove them immediately in our social media group. After a lot of attack and counter attack where even the MLA in our group said he has no issues with Residents Watch removing all banners of all parties, the BBMP and the party workers finally removed the banners.
TOUCHED THE UNTOUCHABLES
More than a year ago, the Sai Baba temple that was illegally built a few years ago in a median park in Sector 3, was trying to further encroach the public space. When one resident pointed this out in the RW group, the construction was stopped and the idea of expansion was abandoned. And when one mosque was being built in a predominantly Hindu area of HSR Layout, we convinced them to abandon the idea because it was counter-productive.
Similarly, when the Subramanya temple was installing speakers during festivals across the entire length of 18th Cross in Sector 3, we wrote about it and urged our group members to talk to the temple promoters. Eventually, they listened for the general public good. More recently, we even asked all temples, mosques and churches in and around the neighbourhood to tone down the decibel levels. We urged everyone in our group to do their bit in conveying the same. And soon enough, the decibel levels were down.
If we are scared of religion, who will tame the noise pollution and the rampant encroachment? The moral of the story? Name and shame helps, but importantly, if you get every thinker in a group to do his bit, much more can be achieved. So the success of Residents Watch is as much the success story of every proactive member in the group. And they include govt officials, local netas, civic activists, resident welfare associations and the Bangalore media.
TOTAL TRANSPARENCY
It’s a tight group of just about 112 members in our Telegram group. However, what gets discussed, debated and suggested in this group finds its way into print as well. All those who are not part of this group get to know through the magazine that’s both in print, a mobile app and a website. There’s total transparency in the system. Every good suggestion and every important complaint made by the residents in the group is published, so nothing said in the group goes to waste.
PREVENTED TRANSFER
When we heard that an upright HSR traffic inspector was going to be transferred arbitrarily because some powerful people didn’t like his righteous ways, we announced his imminent transfer in our RW group and asked everyone to use their influence in stopping the transfer. We also called up the Traffic commissioner and he said nothing of the sort will happen. And the transfer was stopped.
SPRINGBOARD FOR ACTIVISM
The success of the KCDC protest that saw the biggest turnout of residents in HSR galvanised another section of residents to protest against the powerful Sobha Builders who were using a public road by including it within their compound for over ten years. And this had denied the people easy access to HSR Layout and surrounding areas, leading to traffic jams. Now, the case is in court, and it’s loaded against Sobha, if the lawyers are to be believed. They are just using delay tactics to prolong the case because they know they can’t win it. And this protest also happened after one story on the Sobha road issue came out in Residents Watch. Our magazine carried the Sobha side of the story as none of the residents wanted to speak out against Sobha. But once they read the story, the suffering residents gathered all the strength required and gave us the full story with proof that Sobha was misleading everyone. And this led to an immediate protest by them that saw more than 3000 people turn up on D Day.
NOISE POLLUTION
Loudspeakers were installed in a public park by a local politician. Nobody had the guts to question him, but we did and engaged in a lengthy Whatsapp argument with his stooges. We even called the Deputy Commissioner of Police of the area to vindicate what we were saying all along — that installing speakers and playing loud music in a public park was unlawful. They were playing loud folk and religious music every day for two hours; one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. Eventually, the decibel levels were brought down and all is well now.
SPREADING POSITIVITY
When we began the magazine, there were hardly a few civic activists, but now there are about a 100 of them and counting. What’s more, when a protest call is made, hundreds more turn up. And that has happened because of our social media activism and due publicity about the issues and the residential heroes in the magazine, Residents Watch.
APOLITICAL AND NO-NONSENSE
We have slammed Congress MLC Ugrappa, JD(S) MP Kupendra Reddy, BJP MLA Satish Reddy and Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Whatsapp groups and the magazine whenever they have done anything wrong. And the biggest protest against KCDC was against the state Congress party. Yet, the crowning glory was when the youth wing of the Congress, National Students Union of India, honoured our editor in October 2017 for being a community journalist who didn’t spare any party when it came to the cause of the public.
GROOMING FUTURE LEADERS
The social media groups and Residents Watch magazine have also become a grooming ground for future politicians. Our editor is the co-founder of Hasiru Mithra, that has aligned with the Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) to groom future leaders. The result? One of the residents is going to be contesting for the post of the MLA from this area and in future, one of them could be contesting for the post of corporator. This is how we can make a change. Forget about state and centre politics, if we can get the right corporators and MLAs to represent us, the future will definitely be brighter than it is now.
THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM
City magazines are passé now, because every neighbourhood has become self-sustaining. Therefore, a magazine like Residents Watch recognised this fact more than five years ago and still standing (both in print and social media — we have a mobile app, a website, a Facebook page and group, a telegram group and an emailer). The upshot? Such a model should be replicated across the city and country by philanthropists, corporates or resident journalists to make a difference at the grassroots.
Join our Telegram Group (98805-85748) and be part of our journey or follow us on Facebook.
