City: Bengaluru

Due to poor maintenance and metering, transformers can get damaged frequently, causing power cuts. Pic: Ekta Sawant Bengalureans are familiar with frequent power cuts lasting several hours, sometimes through the day. Irregular power supply interrupts our daily routines, especially with respect to work since many of us are working from home these days. It could also damage household appliances like refrigerators, air-conditioners and TV sets. In the case of medium, small and micro industries, erratic power supply affects production. One of the most common reasons for power cuts is the poor maintenance of distribution transformers. Damaged transformers also pose a…

Bengaluru, predicted to be the fastest growing city in the world for the next 15 years, is already facing an acute water crisis. Its rapid infrastructural expansion has led to an ever-increasing demand for water, and local government bodies haven’t been able to keep up. The BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board), tasked with water supply, still doesn’t cover the 110 surrounding villages that had been merged into the city in 2007. Over the years, private water tanker operators have bridged this gap in water supply, playing a crucial role in the city’s daily life. However, they operate without…

The Gig Economy is characterised by economic activity based on short-term or temporary labour contracts - as opposed to permanent employment - typically in the service sector. The rise of app-based companies has created a new economic model which deems workers to be independent contractors, rather than employees. While this allows for low barriers for entry and exit to the field, it exempts gig workers from protections conferred by employment laws including minimum wages, overtime and other benefits. The COVID-19 crisis, in particular, has brought into sharp focus the precarious conditions gig workers are subject to. Platform workers engaged in…

COVID cases spike After the relaxations made to inter-state and inter-district travel, 79 positive COVID cases were reported among returnees to Bengaluru between May 18 and June 3. Among them, 40 individuals were from Maharashtra, 12 from Delhi, eight from Tamil Nadu, two from Rajasthan and one from Andhra Pradesh. The remaining 16 cases are from other places, including other districts of Karnataka. A senior BBMP official said it is challenging to keep road travellers under check, as border controls were being ignored in many areas especially along Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh borders. While the BBMP has jurisdiction over…

While providing much-needed relief from the heat, the monsoon also cripples Bengaluru with a whole lot of problems every year. Top among them are flooding of roads and clogging of stormwater drains. On June 1, the state government published a list of eight teams - one for each of the eight BBMP zones - to prepare for and respond to this year's monsoon. The teams have members from six departments - Forest, BESCOM, Fire and Emergency Services, BWSSB, BBMP and Traffic Police. The BBMP's Storm Water Drain (SWD) Department has also identified 211 vulnerable SWDs, which have to be worked…

Why do Shramik trains arranged after a 60-day long wait by workers have to be so carefully mismanaged? How do they end up taking extra-long routes? And why are passengers given such meagre amounts of water and food? Is this what ‘shramiks’ should get after spending days trying to satisfy all procedures, whims and fancies of the concerned departments and officials?  Why does everything to do with workers have to be a planned nightmare?  Let me share snippets from the journey of a worker from Bengaluru to Jampani village in Jharkhand, which led me to ask these questions.  The journey…

A report titled ‘Choking in the Garden City’ released by Sensing Local and Healthy Energy Initiative India, has analysed 24-hour air samples of PM 2.5 from different parts of the city. The authors of the report highlight that the main objective of the study was to understand the source contributors to air pollution at a local level, how they differ from one place to another based on land use, road hierarchies and other variables, and to highlight health effects due to specific elements present in the air.  Apart from PM 2.5, elevated levels of heavy metals such as manganese, nickel,…

For weeks, thousands of migrant workers who had started on their arduous journeys back home, trudged past Devanahalli cross. The sight, Mukkham Ila says, made her weep. “We can understand the hunger and desperation. They just wanted to go home. We couldn’t bear to see them hungry,” she says.   Some time in the first week of May, Mukkham asked her son to buy wheat, vegetables and groceries. The family’s income from a mutton shop and from daily-wage labour had been hit by the lockdown. Still, they managed to spare over Rs. 2,500. "We wanted to feed at least 80…

“Hum Corona se nahi, bhook se marenge!”  (“I’ll not die of Corona, but will definitely die of hunger!”). This is the poignant cry of many migrant workers left without work, wages and food in labour camps across Bengaluru during the COVID-19 lockdown. After the endless wait for trains to their hometowns as well as the State’s failed promise to deliver them food/ration kits, migrant labourers preferred to walk more than 1000 km home, carrying their elderly, children and meagre belongings. It shows their desperation, as no one, if they had enough to eat, would have embarked on such journeys. One…

Shorter hospital stay for COVID patients COVID-19 patients will have a shorter stay in hospital, with the state government changing its discharge protocols. From now, symptomatic patients staying in isolation facilities will be discharged 10 days after admission if they show no symptoms on the last three consecutive days and test negative. If they test positive, repeat tests will be done after 72 hours. Asymptomatic patients in isolation facilities will be discharged following a test seven days after admission, if the result is negative. Earlier, all patients had to spend a minimum of 14 days in hospital and a patient…