Urban Ooru

When something goes wrong in a neighbourhood, who does one call? Who is that elected people’s representative that one goes to? Most of us may think of the local MLA or MP. Rarely do we think of the Councillor or as we call it, the Corporator. In 1992, the Parliament enacted the 73 rd (Panchayati Raj) and the 74 th (Urban Local Bodies) Constitutional Amendment. This enabled the devolution of powers from the state governments to local governments. The intent of this was to ensure that functions like building and maintenance of roads, health, water and electricity supply would be the responsibility of the local government. This meant that citizens could voice their needs to their elected representative for effective provision of services. While it is by many measures insufficient, the 12 th Schedule of the 74 th Amendment outlines the 18 functions that Urban Local Body (ULB) needs to carry out. However, in many states including Karnataka, even these responsibilities have not been fu...

Let’s start at the beginning. We purchased our plot around 25 years ago. It’s located in a little enclave of 2 streets. This enclave of about 2 acres was close to a large upcoming suburb in Bengaluru hemmed in by a large tract of litigated land on one side and a much larger tract of defence land on the other. This meant that we had no paved road to our place. There was just a mud track that would disappear in the rains when we would skid and slide on our motorbikes – not a very nice experience. As the land was litigated, we did not have a water and sewerage connection. Luckily, we got the electricity connection through the transformer in the wooded army land. For water, each plot drilled its own borewell and for the sewerage we built our own septic tanks. The land had another complication with a small storm water drain on its west and south sides. This later became the receptacle for our sewage. Much to our dismay, we found that this drain would get blocked downstream much farthe...

I step out onto the street. There are no pavements. Actually, the road hardly exists now. The BWSSB has dug up our road for the 5 th  time trying to the get the sewerage right this time. And prior to that, they were trying to get the water supply right. And prior to that? Oh well, they were laying the sewerage, only that the contractor wouldn’t listen when a few of us (architects residing in the area) told him that he was laying it much higher than what he should have done. Prior to that? They laid the sewer lines for the first time. Got us to close our well-functioning septic tanks to connect our building sewerage to the spanking new sewer line. Great work, you would think, just that they had no sewage treatment plant in the area. So, they connected it to the storm water drain by the side of our building. And prior to that, they had laid the water lines for the first time. Now, let’s talk about the electricity! A few months ago, they installed a new transformer. The contractor did...

Last month, September, was the month of the equinox. A year sees four watershed touch points of seasons – the two equinoxes and the two solstices. Equinox is when the day and night are approximately equal across the earth. It also means that the sun rises and sets exactly in east and west respectively. Equinoxes happen between March 20 th to 23 rd and September 20 th to 23 rd annually. The actual date may vary from year to year. The solstices are when days and nights are the longest or the shortest depending on the hemisphere one is in. December 21 st to 23 rd sees the shortest day and longest day in the northern hemisphere and vice versa in the southern hemisphere. June 21 st to 23 rd sees the longest day and shortest night in the northern hemisphere and vice versa in the southern hemisphere. Everything is about the angle Its fascinating that something like this happens – all because of the tilt in the axis around which the earth rotates. The earth’s tilt is around ...

This month saw us celebrating our 73 rd Independence Day. It is a day that fills our hearts with a renewed sense of patriotism and pride. India is on a developmental upswing and there is a palpable energy that one can find everywhere. We have reached Mars – Mission Mangal, the blockbuster film on the historic Mars mission just released this month to rave reviews while our second mission to the Moon – Chandrayaan 2, has successfully locked into the lunar orbit. Despite all the inherent inefficiencies of our cities that we complain about, there is construction everywhere – buildings, metro lines, flyovers, pavements, underground service lines - the list is endless. Broadband penetration across the country is growing at a blazing speed and we are on the verge of getting 5G services. This is all great news! However as per a recent UN report released in June 2019, India will become the most populous country on earth by 2027 – a mere 8 years from now. The growth that India will s...