Articles by Laasya Shekhar

Plastic bans across various Indian states have been in the headlines for over a month now, with Maharashtra abandoning plastic and Tamil Nadu announcing plans to follow suit from January 2019. A partial ban on plastic is in place in five states  in India -- Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Kerala and Goa. Indian cities have joined others around the world in observing a plastic-free July, and there are various initiatives underway to spread awareness and encourage rejection of single-use plastic. However, in this much-needed discourse around plastic and its ill effects, there has been a notable lack of attention given…

Twelve hours after two commuters were killed in an overcrowded train at St Thomas Mount on Monday evening, a similar accident claimed four lives at the same station on Tuesday morning. Four men -- Shivakumar (19), Bharat(16), Naveen Kumar (25) and Shankar (age unknown) -- were killed, while six others injured when their shoulder bags hit the 5-feet railway cement fence at the station. They were travelling on the footboard of the overcrowded Chennai Beach to Tirumalpur express that reached St Thomas Mount Railway station at 8.20am. According to a spokesperson from Southern Railways, the fence was constructed to prevent…

With a long coastline, Chennaiites have the luxury of a sand track for their sporting activities, especially athletics. The sand track is the cheapest facility for many athletes, including the youth from fishermen communities, who can be seen practising on beach roads. The 210 playgrounds maintained by the Greater Chennai Corporation also facilitate daily practice for the potential athletes. But can we really provide the kind of infrastructure needed for athletes to compete and shine on the global arena ? Perhaps not. While the existing facilities are good for athletes in the early training phases, mastering the sport requires well-equipped…

The incomplete pillars on Chennai's Inner Ring Road are a stark reminder of one of the tall claims of the state and central government about the extended Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS). Twenty three years after Phase-1 of Parakkum Rail between Chennai Beach and Mylapore was inaugurated in 1995, construction over a 1.5-Km stretch from Adambakkam to Puzhuthivakkam on the Inner Ring Road remains suspended. The 20-kilometre long MRTS line from Chennai Beach to Velachery includes prominent and populated localities that are not serviced by the older suburban railway network. However, the MRTS  has not been utilised to its maximum potential…

Urban infrastructure projects announced by various government departments have hit a stumbling block in Chennai, since the expiry of the last city council in October 2016. A handful of ideas announced by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) were languishing at varying stages of implementation, several of them still at a very preliminary stage. Several other projects taken up by the highways department have also been in suspension.   We inquired into three such significant projects in Chennai and the problems that impede completion. Pallavaram flyover skips deadline When the highways department commenced the construction works of the three lane unidirectional…

When it comes to transparency and providing information to citizens, Tamil Nadu has a rich legacy. The southern state was a front runner in passing the Right To Information (RTI) act in 1997, eight years before the Centre passed it in 2005.  The Act proved to be a game changer. To cite just one example, an RTI activist exposed a scam by the Tamil Nadu Housing Department (TNHB) in December 2010, where selected government servants were provided with houses, under the Government Discretion Quota. Through the RTI reply and further investigation, it was learnt that undeserving people were categorised as social…

With broad, lush green leaves and purple flowers, water hyacinth often adds a measure of surreality to ponds and lakes. Yet, in reality, Eichhornia crassipes (the scientific name for water hyacinth) contaminates water bodies, blocks the passage of sunlight and subsequently destroys the aquatic ecosystem. Why should we care? Water hyacinth is a killer species. The plant obstructs photosynthesis and poses a threat to the lives of fish and other migratory birds in the water bodies. “The decline in the count of migratory birds at Pallikaranai marsh explains the gravity of damage already done by sewage pollution and water hyacinth,” says J…

Information is an asset. Before the Right To Information (RTI) Act enacted in 2005, information was limited and often, important public data remained within the access of a select few only. The state of affairs in India has changed undoubtedly after the RTI act, with citizens filing petitions, but there is still a lack of awareness that has limited its adoption. Even now, many civic activists follow the conventional procedure of visiting the government offices for information, when it could be done through a simple application.  There are others who complain that getting the relevant information from a government department through…

Nature is the manifestation of God, said Frank Lloyd Wright, the noted American architect. Indeed, Nature is often equated with the divine. However, our worship of the divine often takes a toll on the natural environment. Have we stopped to consider the magnitude of waste generated at our religious institutions? Tamil Nadu, which has 38,000 temples under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR &CE) department alone, generates more than 3.8 lakh kilos of floral waste every day, according to a senior HR & CE official. This number does not include the hundreds of private temples, mosques and gurudwaras, where…

Speeding two-wheelers, Electricity Board (EB) boxes (working or otherwise), tree stumps and encroachments, and no space to walk. The picture this conjures explains the pathetic state of footpaths in Chennai, a city with a significant percentage of pedestrians in the traffic. On one hand, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) claims to be creating more footpaths and cycle paths in the city. “We will soon be creating footpaths along 80 percent of the city roads, to facilitate the movement of pedestrians,” said a senior corporation official. On the other, the civic body has flouted several rules in its footpath construction in…