City: Chennai

Once there was a river. Rather, there were many rivers. And then there were none. In the run up to Arappor Iyakkam's Sakkadai Thiruvizha, a citizen awareness program to highlight the problem of sewage being let into Chennai's water bodies, two young photographers -- Raghavan Lokesh and Mohan Kumar Karunakaran -- volunteered to travel along Chennai's rivers, and capture images for our readers. The pictures are heart breaking. Let us take a minute to view, and mull over, what we have done to the lifelines of this city. [Raghavan Lokesh is an entrepreneur and has been volunteering with Arappor Iyakkam…

On the evening of Saturday, March 31st, the residents of Besant Nagar were taken aback when large stretches of perfectly laid pavements, between Theosophical Society and Olcott School, interspersed with young trees protected by tree guards, were dug up and uprooted by a crew from the Greater Chennai Corporation. When they asked what the work was about, and who had ordered it, they were told that the Bus Route Roads (BRR) department of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), had a plan to widen the pavements and provide bicycle lanes. But why break perfectly good stretches when there are so many…

With summer approaching, the beaches in Chennai are expected to have more visitors looking to beat the heat but sadly, given the state of safety measures in these beaches, the safe return of the visitor is entirely up to chance and personal precautions. The lack of adequate safeguards is serious cause for concern among citizens and NGOs alike. A recent case, in which a teen hockey player in Chennai drowned off the Marina, spurred the Madras High Court (MHC) into action. The court directed the state government to install watchtowers and station lifesaving boats on the beach to prevent any…

For slum dwellers evicted from the banks of the Adyar and Cooum rivers in Chennai, currently residing in Perumbakkam, access to food rations under the Public Distribution System (PDS) is proving to be one arduous process. In addition to lack of educational facilities for children and infrastructural inadequacies highlighted in earlier articles in Citizen Matters Chennai, severe lapses in the functioning of the government-organised PDS, leading to insufficient essential commodities that families are dependent on, have also come to light. Inadequate numbers of PDS centres For the estimated number of 7600 families in Perumbakkam, there is only one PDS centre,…

14 ponds in Manali to be restored in the first phase under the Smart City Mission Chennai Corporation will work on restoring 14 ponds in Manali, in the first phase of the pan city initiative under the Smart City Mission.  Chennai has around 280 water bodies of which 145 lakes and ponds come under the Corporation jurisdiction.  The Chennai Corporation has planned to revive all these water bodies in a phased manner. "According to the Corporation officials, it has been proposed to use permeable pavement methods like sand gravel mix as part of the restoration work. It has also been…

Maintaining the worn out ration book was anyway quite a task in every household. But it’s time to bid adieu to the age-old tradition. Smart cards are the digital version of ration booklets designed like an ATM card. Earlier this year, the Government of Tamil Nadu led by the Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palanisamy announced a move to issue smart cards in lieu of the existing ration cards. So far the government has issued 1,98,69,625 smart cards to ration card holders across the state whereas the total number of beneficiaries are calculated to be 6,70,65,374. Meanwhile, residents with old ration…

March 23, 2015; the venue: Chennai Corporation Council. While passing the budget of his last term in office, 'Saidai' Duraisamy, then Mayor of Chennai remarked, “Of the 419 announcements made by the AIADMK-led Corporation so far,  218 have been implemented. We will implement the remaining 165 this year.” This was at the Corporation Council meet on the budget. He also compared the percentage of announcements that were implemented in the earlier regime vs his current regime and was proud that he had  done better by a margin of 15%. In that budget debate, 103 of the 200 councillors participated. The opposition…

Would you believe it if you hear that Chennai has around 160 public libraries? While the Connemara and the Anna Centenary libraries are icons in their own right, the city has a total of 162 part and full time libraries open to the public. From military quarters to hospitals and the regional passport office, part-time and branch libraries have been functioning modestly from a range of spaces across across different wards. The Tamil Nadu Public Libraries Act, notified in 1948 provided for the establishment of public libraries for both rural and urban areas across the state. As per the Act,…

When old friends of 30 years plus get together, primarily to recollect with nostalgia the years spent in the NCC,  talks are wide ranging, covering  every subject under the sun. So, it was not unexpected that we wandered onto the subject of places where people don't get much of the sun (read cheer), and that led the three of us to knock on the forbidding gates of Puzhal Prison to bring some cheer into prison routine. The good intentions almost vaporised with the tedious process of verification of antecedents by the police - who seemed puzzled as to why anyone…

As school-children, many of us have probably heard lectures or talks emphasizing the use of emergency helplines during distress. On an average, a school-going child is aware of at least one helpline. Over the years, we may also have come to know about helplines through advertisements, Public Service Announcements (PSAs), hoardings, messages on social media etc. The government has repeatedly emphasized on dialling helplines during distress by conducting several campaigns for creating awareness. New helplines are also being launched to cater to the growing needs. So, what happens when we dial a helpline? Let’s look at the working of some of…