City: Delhi / NCR

“3424 million litres run-off quantity is the missed potential, which sometimes becomes a liability in the city,” says the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the Delhi-based pro-environmental think-tank that has long been making a case for rainwater harvesting in parks and open spaces. “If managed efficiently, the run-off can be stored, recharged and moderated during peak rainfall”. Delhi has had a bad water year this summer. Even the “piaos” that many large hearted people set up outside their homes in different parts of the city to distribute water have gone dry this year,  The gap between demand and supply…

Even as we write this, the blaze at Delhi's Bhalswa waste dump — a colossal mountain of unsorted and unsegregated waste in the national capital — continues to thwart the efforts of the Delhi Fire Services personnel as they fight the flames raging since April 26th. Of course, such fires at waste dump sites are not uncommon; this is already the third such incident this summer after earlier outbreaks at the Ghazipur landfill site. Methane gas emissions during decomposition of the dumped waste in unaerobic conditions, combined with high air temperatures, make these sites veritable tinderboxes. Sometimes, reckless or deliberate…

Rental housing in India is predominantly an urban phenomenon. This is largely due to the concentration of large numbers of migrant population in urban clusters. It enables migrants to continuously shift places with changing job locations, manage their household finances, locate proximity to worksites, and remit more money back to their homes. The NCR of Delhi is one of those few urbanized states that have a higher percentage of households (28%) residing in rental accommodation, over and above the national urban average (27%).     Rental housing market in Delhi is characterized by co-existence of several sub-markets. Low-cost rental housing is mostly available…

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…

This is the second and final of the two-part analysis of the new Act passed by Parliament, merging Delhi’s three municipal corporations into one all-powerful Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) under the control of the union government. The first part can be read here. The trifurcation of the Delhi local body in 2012 could no doubt have been better thought out. The three MCDs together had 94.23% of the NCT area — 1399.26 sq km of the total area of 1484.97 sq km. As per the 2011 Census, the three MCDs had 97.81% of Delhi's population under all the local bodies…

This first of a two-part series looks at the new Parliament Act merging Delhi’s three corporations into one all-powerful Delhi Municipal Corporation. For Delhi’s citizens, the hope is that creation of one omnibus municipal corporation for Delhi will improve the quality of services provided. For all those employed by the municipal corporations in different segments and capacities, from  teachers and sanitation workers to doctors, nurses and health workers, to name a few, the hope is that they may at last get their salaries, arrears and pensions which the present trifurcated MCDs have been unable to pay. Not surprisingly, all sections…

Rupees 10 crore may seem a small number. But the cause that prompted the Delhi government to allocate this sum is at once extraordinarily human, and extremely rare. Building a boarding school for children whose home generally are the pavements, road dividers, under flyovers and outside stations and temples. It is a miniscule part of the Rs 75,800 crore total Delhi budget, presented by Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia. Efforts to bring these street kids into the mainstream education stream have failed so far. A boarding school for them will be a small step in that direction, Sisodia hopes, and that…

With the presentation of the Delhi budget due any day now, stakeholding citizens crystal gaze at every word, comma and fullstop in the finance minister's statements. But Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio besides education, left little scope for guesses on what the Kejriwal government's priorities will be for the upcoming 2022-23 state budget. For one, the Delhi government came out with full page newspaper advertisement inviting suggestions from citizens to send their ideas on what the focus and specifics of the budget should be. Normally, pre-budget public consultations around policy and allocations generally…

Ever since its launch in 2018, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been trying to include his “revolutionary step” of doorstep delivery of rations in Delhi to the list of 100 services presently available under this scheme. Presently, people pick up their rations from Fair Price Shops (FPS) under the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS).  The state government was all set to roll out the scheme initially on March 25th, and again in mid-June. Both times, Lt Governor Anil Baijal ensured it did not happen. Baijal represents the BJP-led Central government that has constantly been at loggerheads with the AAP government. The…