Minutes of the Hasiru Usiru meeting on July 5, 2008
On July 5th 2008, a meeting was held at ESG office to discuss the recent developments in the campaigns against road widening and privatisation of lakes, and discuss the implications of the interim order of the Karnataka High Court in the road widening PIL. Another reason behind the meeting was to decide upon the future course of action in both the campaigns.
The meeting was attended by Hasiru Usiru members, members from the HSR Layout Residents’ Association, senior citizens, a researcher from ISEC, , and Dr Thekur, member of the BBMP Biodiversity Committee headed by Mr. Yellapa Reddy.
The meeting started off with a round of introductions and brief presentations by ESG staff sharing the recent developments in the road widening and lake campaigns. In response to this, a few people shared their concerns as pedestrian users and cyclists on roads. There was a brief discussion on pedestrian and users of non motorized transport and street vendors , as envisaged by the National Urban Transport Policy.
Following this, Leo explained the implications of the interim order in the road widening PIL, upon the future course of action.
The main points of the interim order :
The interim order of the High Court was granted because the BBMP’s road widening scheme violates the provisions of the Karnataka Town & Country Planning Act. Taking cognizance of the points raised by the petitioners , an arrangement acceptable to the BBMP and the petitioners was worked out, whereby it was decided that the Biodiversity Committee constituted by the BBMP would hear the parties on the issues involved in the road widening scheme. The High Court also directed the BBMP to include six more persons in the Committee ( three on petitioners’ suggestion and three on the BBMP consul’s). The High Court judgment specifies that “The Committee shall also take into consideration not only the felling of trees and the widening of roads to reach the international airport but also such other incidental and related matters which result in the traffic hazards and also in relation to public/private transport, senior citizens, physically handicapped persons, children, ecology, environment and health” and that “the parties are at liberty to request the Committee for an interim arrangement with regard to widening of the roads and the felling and replanting of trees in urban area where the widening of the roads work is launched and executed.”
Leo shared his view that the judgment was quite favorable and provided plenty of room for imaginative interventions by HU to constructively carry forward the road widening campaign. He said that the important step would be to present Hasiru Usiru’s views at committee meetings not only through the three committee members , but also being directly present at the meetings. He said that HU members could organize people from their neighbourhoods and request the Committee to be a part of the meetings, and also hand in written suggestions about addressing traffic congestion in their neighbourhoods.
Some people opined that looking at traffic congestion solutions was a complex exercise and enquired if ESG had data about traffic flows in the city and at traffic signal points. To this, Dasarathi ( from HU) and Leo responded that solutions had to be addressed on a case by case basis, and at a neighbourhood level and cannot be worked out on a generic basis for the entire city .
It was decided that it was necessary to organize a one day workshop where everyone could equip themselves with the details of the road widening scheme, get to examine different perspectives about designing roads and exchange ideas on addressing problems in their neighbourhoods. The workshop was finalized for the 19th of July.
The meeting concluded on the note that this was just an introductory meeting to the issue and had to be followed up by other meetings in neighbourhoods organized by HU members, representations to the BBMP Committee and so on.
The meeting was attended by Hasiru Usiru members, members from the HSR Layout Residents’ Association, senior citizens, a researcher from ISEC, , and Dr Thekur, member of the BBMP Biodiversity Committee headed by Mr. Yellapa Reddy.
The meeting started off with a round of introductions and brief presentations by ESG staff sharing the recent developments in the road widening and lake campaigns. In response to this, a few people shared their concerns as pedestrian users and cyclists on roads. There was a brief discussion on pedestrian and users of non motorized transport and street vendors , as envisaged by the National Urban Transport Policy.
Following this, Leo explained the implications of the interim order in the road widening PIL, upon the future course of action.
The main points of the interim order :
The interim order of the High Court was granted because the BBMP’s road widening scheme violates the provisions of the Karnataka Town & Country Planning Act. Taking cognizance of the points raised by the petitioners , an arrangement acceptable to the BBMP and the petitioners was worked out, whereby it was decided that the Biodiversity Committee constituted by the BBMP would hear the parties on the issues involved in the road widening scheme. The High Court also directed the BBMP to include six more persons in the Committee ( three on petitioners’ suggestion and three on the BBMP consul’s). The High Court judgment specifies that “The Committee shall also take into consideration not only the felling of trees and the widening of roads to reach the international airport but also such other incidental and related matters which result in the traffic hazards and also in relation to public/private transport, senior citizens, physically handicapped persons, children, ecology, environment and health” and that “the parties are at liberty to request the Committee for an interim arrangement with regard to widening of the roads and the felling and replanting of trees in urban area where the widening of the roads work is launched and executed.”
Leo shared his view that the judgment was quite favorable and provided plenty of room for imaginative interventions by HU to constructively carry forward the road widening campaign. He said that the important step would be to present Hasiru Usiru’s views at committee meetings not only through the three committee members , but also being directly present at the meetings. He said that HU members could organize people from their neighbourhoods and request the Committee to be a part of the meetings, and also hand in written suggestions about addressing traffic congestion in their neighbourhoods.
Some people opined that looking at traffic congestion solutions was a complex exercise and enquired if ESG had data about traffic flows in the city and at traffic signal points. To this, Dasarathi ( from HU) and Leo responded that solutions had to be addressed on a case by case basis, and at a neighbourhood level and cannot be worked out on a generic basis for the entire city .
It was decided that it was necessary to organize a one day workshop where everyone could equip themselves with the details of the road widening scheme, get to examine different perspectives about designing roads and exchange ideas on addressing problems in their neighbourhoods. The workshop was finalized for the 19th of July.
The meeting concluded on the note that this was just an introductory meeting to the issue and had to be followed up by other meetings in neighbourhoods organized by HU members, representations to the BBMP Committee and so on.
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