Civic Amenities

The leaves of the chinar trees were still green, signalling winter was yet to arrive. The chinar trees normally signal winter and snow when its leaves turn yellow and start falling. The people, and the administration, were thus totally unprepared for any unseasonal weather vagaries. But on November 5th, the weatherman in Srinagar issued an alert—possibility of heavy rain and widespread snow on November 7th across the region. The prediction was right on the nose. As the clock struck 9 am on November 7th, the crisp morning air was covered with thick snowflakes and within just two hours, Srinagar witnessed…

Bandaru Dattatreya is an Indian politician who has been a Member of the Lok Sabha for Secunderabad since 2014. He belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a party that he joined in 1980. Dattatreya was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Secunderabad constituency in 1991. In 1999, Dattatreya was elected to the Lok Sabha for a third time. Between 1999 and 2001, he served as Union MoS for Urban Development in the third Vajpayee ministry. From 2001 to 2003, he served as Union MoS for Railways. In 2003, he was again given the Urban Development portfolio. In May…

Newspaper headlines at various times during the year 2018 highlighted what may well be called the "worst water crisis" in the country's history till date. Cities faced various issues such as flooding, deficit rainfall, poor drinking water supply, encroached water bodies and untreated sewage, and all these were considered in the preparation of the ‘Composite Water Management Index’ (CWMI)  by the NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India) released in June. The report makes ominous predictions: By 2050, the demand for water in the country might exceed supply, and 21 cities might run out of every drop of groundwater by 2020. About 40…

No treatment, no vote, is the battle cry from Jodhpur, about to go to polls in end-November. As the incidence of dengue fever rises, awareness and anger against the government is shooting up. The Dengue virus is a global citizen, but loves cities, especially India's dirty towns. This year, it seems to be partial to urban Maharashtra, which reported 4,667 cases by September 30, 2018, according to the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP). This was followed by Odisha with 3,883 cases, Kerala (3,660), Andhra Pradesh (3,314), Himachal Pradesh (3,303) and Rajasthan (3,022). The virus also seems to like the southern…

A gentle mist spread over the lapping waves of the Tambrabarani or Thamirabarani, as the skies broke into a morning smile. The river did not look as if it was flooded or in full flow, as it lazily gurgled and swirled over pebbles, while small fish sometimes leapt in quick flashes. A pearly hue was just beginning to infuse the waters as the morning rubbed out sleep from its eyes. But by then crowds of people had already gathered -- bending, and taking three dips as part of the ritual "bath" for which they had travelled for days, and changed trains…

Like most other cities in India, Bhubaneswar has two faces. One is as tinselly and bright as you would expect a fast-growing city to be. The other frowns with the strain and concentration of having to look good. Bhubaneswar was the first choice of the Ministry of Urban Development's (MoUD) flagship Smart City project. A year later, it featured in the top 20 global cities of the world in the Global Smart City Performance Index 2017,  according to a survey by UK-based Juniper Research. The city was a member of a list that included Singapore (that topped the list), San Francisco, London, New…

When you consider that India spends only 1.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health, the least among BRICS nations, the magnitude of its health problems are distressing, but not really surprising. Moreover, for five years till 2016, the National Health Mission (NHM) funds that were unspent by states even increased by 29%, according to a recently released audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. Almost 61% of deaths in India are due to non-communicable diseases, especially cardiovascular, cancer and diabetes, according to the World Health Organisation. As these are the “most common diseases” in India’s cities, noone is really…

In our deeply undemocratic traffic system, we need to call out how strong the automobile lobby is, how suppressed pedestrians are and how small is the resistance from pedestrians and public transport uses. Consider this: peaceful, democratic protesters are not allowed by a force-wielding police to come anywhere near Mantralaya. They are confined to a corner some 2 km away in Azad Maidan, in a corner, rendered invisible to the people. But axe-wielding men of the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) could easily dig up the footpath right in front of the state government headquarters, supposedly to protest the presence of…

‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’. This was taught to us as children. In our days we had a class on moral science, where we were taught certain basic human and civic values in schools. Our elders had no problem with those classes because they also wanted us to imbibe those traits. But today nobody wants to be ‘taught’ or ‘advised’. Children definitely do not want to be ‘preached’ to. Teachers are asked to change their attitudes, teaching methods and ways of handling children. Participative, interactive, activity-based - many a jargon is used. The content too has changed a lot. Controversies keep…