Articles by Bhavani Prabhakar

Registrations for the second phase of the vaccine drive against COVID were kicked off on March 1st. In this phase, citizens above 60 years of age and people above 45 years of age with comorbidities can register themselves for getting the vaccine. According to the announcement made by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,  Co-WIN website is the only place for registration for common citizens and the Co-WIN mobile application is only for administrators.  Read more: Interview: When and how will Chennai get the COVID vaccine? But what is the registration process like? Is there any provision for offline…

Did the recent rainfall help to bring about any significant increase in the groundwater level in your neighbourhood? You can check the data online now.  In a bid to assess groundwater level across the city, so that it can take proactive measures when the table dips, the Chennai Metrowater Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) has installed 200 groundwater monitoring devices and 20 rain gauges across 15 zones of the city. Notably, Chennai is the first Indian city to have a comprehensive automatic groundwater monitoring system. But why do we need such a system in the first place and how will it…

At a time when the city’s green cover is shrinking steadily, parks in the city could potentially provide an oasis in the midst of the concrete, apart from a much-needed sanctuary and leisure spot for the citizenry. According to data in the public domain, the city has 525 parks though a look at their locations reveals an extremely skewed distribution across different regions and zones. Chennai is divided into three zones -- North (Zones 1 to 5), Central (Zones 6 to 10) and South (Zones 11 to 15). While the central and southern regions have 202 and 204 parks respectively,…

R Murugan (name changed), a nurse at the Royapettah Government Hospital, got his first dose of Covaxin at the drive held in the institution on January 16th. As a frontline worker, he was eligible to be vaccinated in the very first phase of the drive in Chennai. “Since I tend to COVID patients, it is important for me to take the vaccine and ensure that I do not pass on the viral infection to my family,” he adds.  Murugan is one of the 2,11,484 persons who got vaccinated in Tamil Nadu as of February 11th, according to data released by the…

Late last year, Balaji Vijayaraghavan, a criminology student from Chennai, downloaded Snapit, a money-lending app. A few days later, he lost close to a lakh from his bank account.  Balaji immediately froze his bank accounts and launched an investigation along with Save Them India Foundation, an NGO working in the cybersecurity front, into how the data breach occurred. “When we began to probe the issue, I learnt that there were 59 malware in the digital lending app that I installed,” says Balaji “Although I did not log in on the app or give permission to access details of other apps…

Porur and Ramapuram are two neighbourhoods which were only recently included in the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) limits in 2013. But long before the inclusion and subsequent formation of resident associations here, Ramapuram was largely an isolated place with cultivable lands.  “Alcohol brewing was the main occupation back in the 1980s when the neighbourhood was a village. In the early 2000s, people began to settle here, educational institutions and firms were established and that is how the locality began to develop,” recalls PV Kishore, a resident of Ramapuram since 1984.  Kishore adds that groundwater was the only source for drinking…

Translated by Sandhya Raju நம் குடியிருப்பு பகுதியிலுள்ள குடிமைப் பிரச்சினைகளைத் தீர்ப்பதில் குடியிருப்பாளர்கள் நலச் சங்கங்களின் பங்கு மறுக்க முடியாதது. இப்பகுதியில் குடிமை வாழ்க்கையில் சாதகமான மாற்றங்களைக் கொண்டுவருவதற்கு உதவுவது மட்டுமல்லாமல், குடிமக்கள் மத்தியில் அவர்களின் உரிமைகள் மற்றும் கடமைகள் குறித்த விழிப்புணர்வை மேலும் மேம்படுத்துகின்றன. ஆனால் அத்தகைய சங்கங்கள் இல்லாத சூழலில், எவ்வாறு அதை உருவாக்குவது? அதன் அதிகாரங்கள் என்ன? யார் அலுவலக பொறுப்பாளர்களாக முடியும்? துணை சட்டங்கள் எவ்வாறு வடிவமைக்கப்படுகின்றன? ஒரு நலச் சங்கத்தை உருவாக்குவது தொடர்பான பொதுவான பல கேள்விகளுக்கு பதிலளிக்க இந்த கட்டுரை மூலம் முயற்சித்துள்ளோம். குடியிருப்பு நலச் சங்கம் என்றால் என்ன? அது எவ்வாறு உருவாக்கப்படுகிறது? குடியிருப்பு நலச் சங்கம் என்பது ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட சுற்றுப்புறத்தில் அல்லது குடியிருப்பில் வசிக்கும் குடியிருப்பாளர்களைக் கொண்ட உறுப்பினர்களின் ஒரு அமைப்பாகும். தமிழ்நாடு சங்கங்களின் பதிவு சட்டம் 1975 - இன் கீழ் இவை பதிவு செய்யப்படும்.…

The role of residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) in solving civic problems in the neighbourhood is undeniable. Active RWAs not only help in bringing about positive changes in civic life in the area, but also enhance awareness of rights and duties among the larger citizenry. But how does one form an RWA where none exists? What are the powers of such an RWA? Who can become office bearers? How are by-laws framed?  This FAQ tries to answer the most common queries with regard to forming a welfare association. What is a Residents’ Welfare Association and how is it formed? An RWA…

While the city had a narrow escape during the recent landfall of Cyclone Nivar, K Srikanth, who runs the Chennai Rains blog, spent about eight hours tracking the movement of the cyclone, understanding its nature and updating his followers. “In general, the time spent on tracking the weather depends on the need. During Cyclone Nivar, I spent about three hours in the morning to share daily updates and five hours for follow-up posts and analysing the weather,” says Srikanth, who has been blogging for a decade. Srikanth is just one among a flourishing, passionate breed of weather bloggers in Chennai,…

The sudden spurt of COVID cases on the IIT-Madras campus last December, shortly after it reopened, has been the subject of close scrutiny in many quarters. Within 18 days of the first two cases detected, the institution recorded 199 cases (179 students, three persons in the quarters, 16 mess workers and a carpenter), leading to a new cluster. At around the same time, many colleges in the city reopened for final year students and research scholars. The outbreak at IIT-Madras has alerted them to the need for revisiting safety protocols and demonstrated why it is important to not let our…