Articles by Sri Krishna

Only the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) even mentioned this in its 10-point poll promise list. The menace posed by stray animals — cattle, dogs and monkeys — in Delhi. None of the other contestants to the Delhi Municipal polls had thought this was a serious enough problem to make it a campaign point. While Congress ignored the issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had a single line in its 12-point manifesto: “We are committed to provide better parking facilities and solving the problem of stray animals”. While other issues such as clearing of landfills, sanitation, street vendors etc. were stressed…

It is a promise all three parties in the fray made - clearing Delhi’s landfills, the three main sites being Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla. Now it has fallen on the winner of Delhi's municipal elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), to fulfil that promise. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has specifically promised to get the three landfill sites cleared over the next five years; the first one to be done by 2024. Waste management overall, not just clearing the landfills, had figured prominently in the manifestos of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress too. The latter had described the Ghazipur…

Rajokri Lake, located near the Delhi-Gurugram border till 2017 was a dying water body that had suffered years of toxic abuse. Domestic wastewater and sewerage from the adjoining semi-urban settlements of Rajokri village were channelled through open drains into the lake, which became a breeding ground for communicable diseases. As one resident of the area said, “It was hell living here. But today, we have a park where children play and an open gym”. In what had become a hub for anti-social elements, “it is now safe for women to venture out anytime,” added the resident. The transformation was the…

A childhood memory of devastation caused by a cyclone that hit India’s east coast way back in 1971, left such a lasting impression on the six-year-old boy that he decided to devote his life learning about the weather and predicting unusual weather events like Cyclones. Today, that six-year-old has risen to be the 25th Director General of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Dr Mrityunjay Mohapatra, also known as the “Cyclone Man”. Dr Mohapatra received international recognition for accurately predicting the path of the ferocious cyclonic storm Phailin that hit the Orissa coast in 1999. As head of the IMD’s cyclone…

The Delhi administration is finally realising the usefulness of the humble cycle. Not only as a much needed commute alternative, but also as a tool to combat Delhi’s perennial poor air quality. Recently, vendors, factory workers, daily wage labourers and other workers who cycle daily to work joined forces to urge the Delhi government to fast track moves to create safe cycling infrastructure and dedicated cycle lanes. The Delhi government reacted by saying it will develop dedicated cycle tracks across the national capital, especially on stretches that are most used by cyclists. Read more: Delhi divided: Will new parking management…

The once iconic Palika Bazar at the centre of Delhi’s Connaught Place area has now earned a dubious distinction: Being classified among India’s five Notorious Markets List (NML) in the US Trade Representative list of such markets. Notorious being an euphemism for selling “counterfeit and pirated” goods. “It may have been so in 2007-08 but not now,” said Vinay Thakur, General Secretary of Palika Bazar Association. “We sell electronic items like headphones, torches, hair dryers, lights, lipsticks and emergency lights and they are mostly Chinese. We are retailers and sell whatever we get”. Most visitors to the market are youngsters…

This is the second of a two-part story looking at how women construction workers are disproportionately affected by air pollution and other work place related issues. Read Part I here Women workers in the construction sector, whom the Mahila Housing Trust spoke to in connection with a report they are working on, said they preferred construction work over other occupations for a variety of reasons, one being the higher daily wage rates it offers as compared to other occupations. According to a woman construction worker from Bakkarwala, “we prefer to work at construction sites since we get a daily wage…

This is the first of a two part story looking at how women workers in the construction industry are disproportionately affected by air pollution and other work place related issues. Women workers in the construction sector, the second largest employer of women after agriculture, are disproportionately affected by issues like air pollution. Not only at their work place but also at their homes. Many women construction workers suffer from illnesses like breathlessness but delay treatment due to the lack of options before them. “There have been no studies carried out about the health impact of construction activities on the workers,”…

As Delhi’s air quality continues to oscillate between poor and severe this winter, the Delhi government imposed a ban on construction from November 15th. The Supreme Court too stepped in to reinforce the ban. In a move to alleviate the problems faced by about six lakh suddenly unemployed construction workers registered with the Delhi Government, the government launched the ‘Shramik Mitra‘ scheme for them. Under the scheme, 800 ‘Shramik Mitras’ will reach out to construction workers, and spread awareness on various government schemes available to them. These Shramik Mitras will work as District, Ward and Vidhan Sabha level coordinators and go…

Six months after Minister for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari introduced the much awaited vehicle scrappage scheme in the Lok Sabha, the Delhi government on September 27th announced its new policy to scrap all 15-year-old diesel vehicles in Delhi and the NCR. “Diesel vehicles older than 15 years will be impounded and sent to the scrapping yard if they are found plying on city roads or parked in public places,” said Delhi Transport Commissioner Ashish Kundra. The scrappage policy announced by Gadkari is a government-funded programme to get old vehicles off the roads. This is expected to reduce pollution,…