Good morning, Bengaluru!
⛈️ Today’s weather: Breezy with thundershowers.
🧐 Did you know? Bengaluru got its first autorickshaw in 1950, when N Keshava Iyengar, the Mayor, approved licenses of ten autorickshaws.
🏙️ BBMP’s plans for a special squad
A special squad may give the city’s civic amenities a facelift.
What’s it about? The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is planning to create a special squad to keep an eye on the city’s civic services like garbage spots, footpaths, potholes, and streetlights. Deputy CM DK Shivakumar suggested it after realising that engineers weren’t making regular inspections.
- Like the police, the BBMP squad will cruise around the city, especially at night, to check on the state of public amenities. Comprising marshals and other workers, the squad will have its own ride for this task.
- The special squad will ensure a parallel system exists to supervise engineers and their audits.
Why though? Much work goes into maintaining roads, streetlights, parks, and planting trees. But the lack of proper supervision and auditing by engineers often renders it futile. Resident Murali Govindarajulu advocates for an enforcement squad to tackle issues like encroachments and unauthorised constructions.
🎦 Arthouse film screening
Vikalp Bengaluru, a community of documentary enthusiasts, screened That Cloud Never Left a few days back.
What’s it about? Yashaswini Raghunandan’s “That Cloud Never Left,” produced by P Sainath’s Peoples Archive of Rural India (PARI), screened at the Bangalore International Centre (BIC) on June 28. It defies categorisation as either a fictional or documentary feature film. On the one hand, it presents village life unfolding in all its mundane glory, devoid of exaggerated drama. On the other, there’s delicate poetry woven throughout.
- The title refers to a lunar eclipse when the moon turns a shade of red. In the film, it’s a moment of disruption in the lives of Daspara’s villagers.
- It was showcased at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, the Hamburg Film Festival, and Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.
The genesis: Seven years ago, during a visit to her mother at the hospital, Yashaswini stumbled upon a charming toy called kyatketi. Its rattling sound caught her attention and took her back to her childhood. It led her to Daspara, the toy’s birthplace, in Murshidabad, West Bengal, where she spent two years.
👩🎨 Shaping clay with sentiment
A recent exhibition showcased a city-based artist who creates wave-based sculptures.
Joy in work: The Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath recently saw a solo exhibition of terracotta sculptures titled ‘Waves of Feelings’. Curated by Isha Phillips and Sarbani Chatterjee, it featured the Bengaluru-based artist Aarti Gupta Bhadauria’s works. She moulds her sculptures with clay and a wire cutter.
- From the intricate ‘Waves of Attraction’ with its fluid network of crests and troughs to the nurturing embrace of ‘Reflection of Thoughts’ resembling a womb, each sculpture springs from a wellspring of sentiment.
- Aarti is an artist hailing from Gwalior and holding a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts with a specialisation in sculpture.
🤳 Police stations get QR code-based feedback
All the police stations in Bengaluru now have a QR code-based feedback system.
New systems: The Bengaluru Police, in collaboration with the BBMP, launched a QR code feedback system through which citizens can voice their experience with the police’s service delivery. On Twitter, City Commissioner B Dayananda asked Bengalureans to offer “honest feedback”.
- Introduced under the ‘Loka Spandana’ initiative, it’s now present in all police stations across Bengaluru.
- The feedback will directly reach respective DCPs and the Police Command Centre.
Citizen-first city: As part of their citizen-connect initiative, the BBMP has introduced a pilot QR-code system in the city’s south zone. By scanning these QR codes on streets using a smartphone, residents can access information about their local MLA, contractors, sanitation workers, and waste collectors and even get their contact numbers.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you think splitting the BBMP is a good idea?
- Splitting the BBMP is a good idea.
- Splitting the BBMP is not a good idea.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
If a superhero could solve Bengaluru’s biggest problem, what would they be called?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- The BBMP began a stray dog census yesterday.
- The BBMP has received a nod from the state government to float tenders for Indira canteens.
- The government handed over land to Foxconn to set up a phone manufacturing unit near Bengaluru.
- Land losers under the Peripheral Ring Road project demand compensation under the 2014 Act.
- A Bengaluru man’s post about an auto driver’s name leaves Twitter in splits.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- I’m going to watch Oppenheimer in the theatre: 88.9% 🏆
- I’m not going to watch Oppenheimer in the theatre: 11.1%
That’s it for today. Have a great day!