EDITORS' PICK

The Deonar dumping ground has mountains of garbage, some reaching 18 floors high, having accumulated 18.35 million tonnes and counting. Years have passed since the government agreed to close the facility, Mumbai's oldest. Its most recent deadline, 2023, is fast approaching. But it seems this time the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) might just make the deadline, by switching to a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant. Construction for the Rs 504 crore plant will begin in a month and a half, seven years after it was first announced. Just one clearance, from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), remains. Spread over 12 of…

On January 8th, a voice note on WhatsApp groups of civic organisations was making rounds in the areas of Borivali and Kandivali. Recorded by an unidentified woman, she claimed that her mother, who lives alone, was duped out of money by a man posing as a Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) agent. On 6th January, he arrived at her home on the pretext of checking the gas meter. On inspection, he allegedly found gas leakages and warned her of a possible fire. She was told that fixing the leakages would cost her Rs 1850 per valve, and in total, she was…

Manoj Kumar, who was handling loans for a private sector bank before COVID struck, has seen it all. He lost his Rs 35,000 a month job and sold vegetables as livelihood and to pay the EMI for his housing loan. The NOIDA resident says that he even considered going to a village and trying for a MNREGA job during the lockdown days. Manoj is emphatic that Budget 2022 has ignored the whole segment comprised of the urban unemployed. “I have not met anyone who feels things will improve by way of jobs for the young, educated, unemployed. No one is…

Izzat ka Pani depicts the struggle of Abrar Salmani, resident of Bhim Nagar, Mankhurd, one of at least 62 informal settlements in Mumbai that are denied legal water access and have no piped water supply. This film describes Salmani’s decade-long journey to access his Right to Water, a prerequisite to the Right to Life, guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Through this journey, we take a glimpse into the lives of Mumbai’s urban poor, the political and systemic injustice they face when trying to access water and sanitation, as well as the on-going efforts of citizen collectives to reform this…

For better or worse, we are married to plastics, and plastics have permeated into our very being. What was once invisible, is suddenly all round us, in the form of waste and pollution. Simple everyday plastic products such as water bottles, plastic bags, toys, throw-away cutlery, fast fashion, food packaging, personal care products, all seemingly harmless, are all causing severe environmental problems, in the form of plastic pollution. From clogged storm water drains to beach litter, from dead rivers to air and soil pollution.  Surgeries performed on animals to remove plastic from the bellies make it to the news regularly. …

To register a marriage in Mumbai, the Maharashtra Regulation of Marriage Bureaus and Registration of Marriages Act, 1998 governs marriages in Maharashtra. There are other Acts, specific to religions, like The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 and the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1972. For inter-faith partnerships, the Special Marriage Act, 1954 is available to those who go in for inter-faith or inter-caste marriage or generally for standard Court marriages without any emphasis on personal beliefs. What is the eligibility criteria for a couple to get married? Men above 21 years of age and women above 18 years of age…

Zone snapshot: Wards -  22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Population - 177148  (2013) Number of polling stations - 191 To locate your polling station - https://tnsec.tn.nic.in/tn_election_urban2021/find_your_polling_station.php To locate your ward and zone - https://chennaicorporation.gov.in/gcc/citizen-details/location-service/find_zone.jsp Issues in the zone: Poor stormwater drain networks area persistent issue in the zone. The recent rain left many areas in the zone marooned after the release of water from the Redhills reservoir. Better, well-connected stormwater drain network would prevent water-logging.Basic civic amenities are not available for residents of the ward who do not have patta despite residing in…

Zone snapshot Wards - 127. 128. 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142 Population – 704697 (2013) Number of polling stations – 613 To locate your polling station – https://tnsec.tn.nic.in/tn_election_urban2021/find_your_polling_station.php To locate your ward and zone – https://chennaicorporation.gov.in/gcc/citizen-details/location-service/find_zone.jsp Issues in the zone: Many parts of the zone such as T Nagar, Saidapet, West Mambalam, K.K. Nagar, Ashok Nagar have experienced extreme water logging during last year's rains. In Saidapet, residents cite the example of Thiruvalluvar Street, where water stagnated and rose as rains continued. In T Nagar, despite heavy investments and publicity around the Smart City Project in the area,…

Zone snapshot: Wards – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Population – 3017485 (2013) Number of polling stations – 279 To locate your polling station – https://tnsec.tn.nic.in/tn_election_urban2021/find_your_polling_station.php To locate your ward and zone – https://chennaicorporation.gov.in/gcc/citizen-details/location-service/find_zone.jsp Issues in the zone: Industrial pollution is one of the major issues causing distress in the area; Indiscriminate discharge of industrial waste and effluents has caused health concerns such as respiratory diseases among the residents. Worries about protecting Ennore Creek have risen as a result of poor environmental monitoring. The residents are convinced that the Kattupalli port expansion project…

Knowing how to a register a flat in Mumbai is important for a person's legal ownership over a property. When you purchase or receive a flat, its agreement of sale, transfer, gift or lease needs to be registered with the government for the transaction to be considered valid and legal under The Registration Act, 1908. Rules in the state are framed under the Maharashtra Registration Rules, 1961. What is the significance of flat registration? Legally, a flat owner's name is not changed or transferred until the sale or gift transaction is registered with the government. Any unregistered transaction has no…