Event: Citizen Clinic – Addressing civic issues in Chennai

Join our Citizen Clinic as we look to help Chennaites find ways to solve civic issues through various avenues available to them for grievance redressal.

Chennai is seen as a land of opportunities and has much to offer for those who reside here. Despite attracting many people from other parts of the state and country with hopes of a better future, life in Chennai is not a bed of roses. Many civic issues in Chennai such as bad roads, flooding and pollution make daily life difficult.

As the city grows, these issues become more significant and affect a large section of the population. But Chennaiites are not entirely powerless when it comes to finding solutions that can help make the city better.

From the Namma Chennai app to area sabhas, there are various avenues through which residents can seek recourse.

Repeated digging of roads for laying pipes and cables has been a waste of resources. Pic: Raghukumar Choodamani
Otteri nullah garbage
Vast amounts of household waste are dumped in and alongside the Nullah. Pic: Shobana Radhakrishnan

Read more: How citizen protests can help fix civic issues in Chennai


Solving civic problems in Chennai

Citizen Matters Chennai is organising a Citizen Clinic to help understand how Chennaiites can use the platforms available to them to solve civic issues.

The clinic will provide answers on whom to approach to fix civic issues and how best to make your voices heard. A panel will share best practices and personal experiences in solving problems that affect daily life in Chennai.

Date: February 22, 2023

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm


Read more: How civic work in Chennai affects daily life of residents in surrounding areas


You can share your questions with us via this form.

Those who have shared their questions will receive an invitation to the virtual meeting of the panel to brainstorm solutions.

Some of the questions that will be addressed

  • Who is the right person to contact to solve civic issues in a neighbourhood?
  • Which is the right platform to share civic grievances?
  • How to follow up on their actions?
  • How to escalate the grievance if action is not taken to resolve it?
  • How to use social media and other media platforms to get civic issues solved?

The discussion will also be live-streamed on YouTube.

A summary of the discussion and video recording will be shared on our website.

We invite you to share your thoughts and suggestions on how Chennaiites can work together to improve life in the city for all.

Also read:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Story

Absent and unusable pavements: Mumbai breaches its own Footpath Policy

The city's unsafe footpaths put pedestrian's lives at risk. The suburbs, where the majority of Mumbaikars live, are worst affected.

“Who walks on footpaths anymore?” asks Abhay Shanbagh, a Vile Parle resident in his sixties. He says the footpath in front of his house is not even fully visible because of the cars parked along it and sometimes on it. Neha Dholam, a domestic worker who walks about two hours daily in Ghatkopar and Vile Parle, has a similar response. She wonders which footpaths I am talking about since they are barely visible behind parked vehicles en route to her workplace. This is the lived reality of so many Mumbaikars even though over half of all trips in Mumbai are…

Similar Story

Bengaluru’s open drains: Civic negligence creates a daily hazard for residents 

From bad design to vigilance gaps and inadequate funding, Bengaluru’s stormwater drains severely compromise pedestrian safety.

Walk down almost any street in Bengaluru, and you will spot them: missing slabs, wide gaps, and wooden planks covering openings. Uncovered stormwater drains have become a safety hazard across the city, creating serious obstacles and putting residents at risk of injury or death. Experts flag bad engineering design, poor monitoring, inadequate funding, and lax enforcement of liability rules as the major reasons for this public safety crisis. In Sanchar Nagar, Thanisandra, contractors dug up a stretch of at least 150 metres for stormwater drain works. A few weeks ago, a resident slipped and fell into the trench, getting badly…