CITIZEN JOURNALISM

It was recently announced that Care Earth Trust, in association with Nature Conservancy India and IIT-Madras, is in talks with the government agencies and stakeholders to bring back life in Sembakkam lake. As the preliminary work to restore the lake begins, members of Sarvamangala Nagar Association in Chitlapakkam met Jayashree Venkatesan of Care Earth Trust recently for assistance to the neighbourhood in rejunevating Chitlapakkam lake.  Organisations such as these, representing citizens from various parts of Chitlapakkam and Sembakkam, are regularly engaged in dialogues and discussion with the Public Works Department, Revenue Administration, Disaster Management and Mitigation Department, Chennai Smart Cities Ltd.;…

My alarm goes off at six, and I roll out of bed excited because today is the first time I get to cast my vote. Two weeks ago, I applied for a voter’s id. My father had assured me that I would get mine soon because elections were around the corner. Sure enough, I got mine three days before the elections, in sharp contrast to friends and neighbours for whom it had taken months when they had applied. Since we had plans to go to our hometown (Nagamangala, Mandya district), we started for the polling booth at 7 AM. Along…

When things don’t work well its always tempting to say “Let’s privatise”, though the experience of privatisation hasn’t been all that great – particularly when dealing with public facilities like health, public transport, water supply or waste disposal. The same logic seems be at work with the recently announced policy of the Government of India to allow privatisation of urban heritage, a move that has evoked extreme reaction from both ends of the spectrum. Some believe privatisation will be a good way to increase efficiency and generate income while others see it as a step signifying abdication of responsibility by…

Volunteers from a citizen activist group, Million Voter Rising interviewed candidates contesting in the Karnataka Assembly elections from Mahadevapura constituency. Below is the transcript of the interview with Swaraj Party candidate Ramesh Chander: https://youtu.be/T8fzb0wNgkg Video courtesy: Sunil Gupta, Whitefield Rising. Your profile mentions that you are a humble person.  How will your humility help you in politics? People expect aggressive people to join politics.  Will you be successful with humility? With my friends and family, I am very humble.  I am also the head of the family after my father passed away.  My family has done very well wherever they…

Volunteers from a citizen activist group, Million Voter Rising interviewed candidates contesting in the Karnataka Assembly elections from Mahadevapura constituency. Below is the transcript of the interview with Indian National Congress candidate A C Srinivas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7068ItIxIw Video courtesy: Sunil Gupta, Whitefield Rising. Can you tell us a little about you and your family? I am the son of a school headmaster.  I was born in Chokkanahalli village of Bangalore.  I have studied B.Com. While serving in a Government job, based on encouragement from my village people to take up service of the society, I got elected as a member of…

Volunteers from Million Voter Rising, the citizen group from Mahadevapura, interviewed candidates contesting in the Karnataka Assembly elections from Mahadevapura constituency. This is the transcript of the interview with the incumbent MLA from Bharatiya Janata Party, Aravinda Limbavali. https://youtu.be/CixmRAQvjcI Mahadevapura MLA Aravinda Limbavali’s proposed manifesto for the constituency has 5 focus issues: traffic, environment, infrastructure, law and order, and social empowerment Does Mahadevpura have any problems and what are they according to you? First of all, I want to thank organisations such as Whitefield Rising that are there in my constituency. They regularly come to me, we discuss various issues. Not…

Pigs hogging the food waste, a few empty tablet sheets flying around and a muddy road reduced in width to almost half, thanks to the garbage overflowing from three bins -- this was the sight that greeted me at the approach to the Voluntary Health Services (VHS) hospital at Taramani on an evening in the second week of April. The VHS hospital is known for taking health care to the poorer sections of the society, and boasts of various upgraded departments including the neurological department and maternity ward, but on this occasion it certainly  appeared that it had a long way to…

I went to visit Lodhi Gardens in Delhi primarily to see its ancient ruined tombs, rich in history. I was enveloped in their serenity. But then this enchanting garden showcased a whole range of green insights that enriched my own unruly gardening, which is often thwarted by six cats who poke their noses into every garden matter. It also made me realize how much there was for public gardens and green spaces in other cities to learn from the way Lodhi Gardens is maintained and the small, simple, easy chores that it has included in its daily schedule of activities.…

Since its launch in November 2017, the Kuppai Thiruvizha has been in the news for all the right reasons, evincing phenomenal support from the denizens of different parts of the city, both online and on the ground. While the first thiruvizha was very successful for a flagship effort, we had to rethink the outreach strategy before the next one, to make the initiative more participatory and inclusive and amplify its reach to a wider range of actors. Core members of the alliance, including representatives from CAG, Urban Design Collective, Arappor Iyakkam, Vettiver Collective, etc., convened one fine morning and dissected the different aspects of…

This Earth Day, on April 22 2018 (and the previous day), residents from the Lokhandwala Township of the western suburb of Mumbai, Kandivali East, got together to participate in the “Colour My Township” initiative, organised by We All Connect (wAc) with the support of Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited. wAc is a community group that was formed to promote bonding and oneness among residents of the township. A few months ago, the group painted a small wall together and members found that painting compound walls together with neighbours was a good way to get to know them. According to Mr Santosh Shetty, founder of…