EDITORS' PICK

On February 19th, the police had registered an FIR against 70 citizens, who took part in a silent march protesting the proposed Sankey road flyover. The protestors were accused of committing various crimes, including unlawful assembly, wrongful restraint, obstruction to any person in any public place. All of which are offenses punishable under the Indian Penal Code. This came to light only when notices were issued in the first weeek of April to those who had participated in the protest. Some weeks later, in Yelahanka, another Bengaluru neighbourhood, several farmers who had been protesting the inadequate compensation provided by the…

"Do you have your eyes on the road or not? Can't you see there are vehicles coming?", yelled a motorcycle rider at a few pedestrians waiting to cross the Rajiv Gandhi IT Expressway on foot. He did so as he sped past the Tidel Park signal, swerving left, on his way to East Coast Road. He missed colliding with the pedestrians by some inches. A recent study on accidents involving pedestrians in Chennai raised some alarming facts about exactly how unsafe the city is for those who navigate it on foot. The study was conducted by Karthikeyan Baskar, a Chennai-based…

Be it Fashion Street, Linking Road, Colaba Causeway or the buzzing Khau Gallis offering a variety of delicacies in various localities, Mumbai is known by its lively street markets run by hawkers. They have a distinct character that attracts shoppers from Mumbai and outside, and have even become a tourist attraction.  The book shops on pavements around Flora Fountain, which were an enduring source of knowledge, now invoke nostalgic memories for generations of book lovers. Similarly, Chor Bazaar is a source of art installations and furniture for art connoisseurs and collectors. Several useful services from typists to affidavit papers to…

Indian National Congress' Dinesh Gundu Rao and the incumbent Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Gandhinagar met with apartment owners in Gandhinagar on April 8th to listen to their grievances. He promised to devise solutions for the same. The former state Minister of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, has won from Gandhinagar five times in a row. He had called out the ruling party for the crumbling infrastructure in the city and criticised the inaction over pothole-ridden roads. He holds a B.E. in Electronics and Communications from BMS College of Engineering.…

The allegations of multiple instances of sexual harassment and abuse in Chennai's famed Kalakshetra highlights the need to look into mechanisms in place at educational institutions in Chennai to aid survivors and prevent the recurrence of such incidents. At present, the University Grants Commission (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of sexual harassment of women employees and Students in higher educational institutions) Regulations, 2015. mandate every educational institution to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to deal with the cases of sexual harassment of all women inside the campus. Unfortunately, many colleges in Chennai do not have a functioning ICC or take…

When I thought of writing this article my intention was to cover the 100 Feet Road Indiranagar, Inner Ring Road (IRR), and 100 Feet Road Koramangala from end to end, starting from Binnamangala and ending in Madiwala. I planned to cover the whole distance to write about citizens' worries in traversing this road. When I went on the ground to find more details, I didn’t go beyond 100 feet road Indiranagar. There was so much content in the first 2.7 kilometres itself that it was needless to go beyond! The white topping work on the 100 feet road started about…

"I know my identity is much more than bipolar disorder. It is just one part of my life”. Those are the words of US-based scientist Dr Yamini (name changed), who has continues to live her life with conviction, while living with Bipolar. On the occasion of World Bipolar Day (March 30), Citizen Matters interviewed Dr Yamini on how she has coped with life and her illness. And how others can learn to cope with similar conditions. Dr Yamini graduated in Engineering from one of India’s top Indian Engineering institutes, and moved to the US where she completed her PhD. She has…

Translated by Geetha Ganesh கோவிட்-19 தொற்றுநோய் சென்னையில் பலரின் வாழ்வாதாரத்தை சிதைத்தது. கோவிட்-19 பொருளாதாரத் தாக்கத்தைத் தணிக்க, மத்திய காலக் கொள்கை பரிந்துரைகளை வழங்க, டாக்டர் சி ரங்கராஜன் குழுவை மாநில அரசு அமைத்தது. குழுவின் பரிந்துரைகளில் ஒன்று நகர்ப்புற ஏழைகளுக்கு தினசரி ஊதிய திட்டத்தை உருவாக்குவதாகும். இதைக் கருத்தில் கொண்டு தமிழ்நாடு அரசு சென்னை மற்றும் பிற மாநகராட்சிகளில் நகர்ப்புற வேலைவாய்ப்புத் திட்டத்தை (TNUES) அறிமுகப்படுத்தியது. இத்திட்டம் மகாத்மா காந்தி தேசிய ஊரக வேலை உறுதிச் சட்டத்தை (MGNREGA) பிரதிபலிக்கிறது மற்றும் ஒரு வருடத்தில் 100 நாட்களுக்கு உத்தரவாதமான வேலைவாய்ப்பை வழங்கும் வகையில் வடிவமைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. சென்னை மாநகராட்சியின் பணிகள் துறையின் நிர்வாக பொறியாளர் (EE) கூறுகையில், “தற்போது சென்னையில் இரண்டு மண்டலங்களில் இந்த திட்டம் சோதனை அடிப்படையில் செயல்படுத்தப்பட்டுள்ளது. மண்டலம் 4 மற்றும் 6 ஆகியவை நகரத்தின் மற்ற பகுதிகளுக்கு விரிவாக்கம் செய்யப்படுவதற்கு முன் இந்த திட்டத்தை சோதிக்க…

Prepare to sweat. Temperatures in Mumbai are expected to see a steady incline, by two to three degrees Celcius, in the coming days. “There is a slight probability that the maximum temperature over Mumbai will be above normal,” says Sushma Nair, a scientist at the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). “But it will most likely oscillate around normal.” Although the temperature is unlikely to break 40 degrees Celcius in April, the increasing humidity will add to summer's discomfort. “The past few days had temperatures between normal to slightly below normal, because the winds were mainly westerly to northwesterly,” says Sushma. Humidity…

‘’A man doesn’t plant a tree for himself, he plants it for future generations," Alexander Smith Often, getting cool shade under a tree has become a luxury in Bengaluru. Especially during summer or on a hot day, you can see people and animals standing in the shade of a building, rather than a tree. However, all is not lost. There are people who have planted and nurtured trees, contributing to the preservation of the city’s green canopy. I came across a beautiful majestic banyan tree just in front of Lalbagh, double roadside entrance. I was admiring the sheer size of…