EDITORS' PICK

Come the first signs of winter and 50-year-old Saleema, a resident of Panthachowk area of Srinagar, visits her 10-acre orchard for two hours daily to collect fallen leaves of the different variety of trees there. She also cuts small tree branches to keep with the leaves. Saleema along with her two daughters, Sab 15 and Iqra 13, then begin the process to turn the leaves and tree branches collected into a kind of coal to be used in fire-pots, popularly known as Kangris, a traditional heating pot which Kashmiris use to fight the bone chilling winter cold. Thanks to the…

Dadul, a security guard at a construction site in Mira Road, returned to Mumbai from Allahabad a month ago. "I went back to my village by truck, paying Rs 3,000, at the start of the pandemic. All I was given from the government at the time was Rs 1,000 and some ration because of the 14-day quarantine. But I was scared of another lockdown, so I stayed back in my village, until recently." he says. Dadul is not aware of any relief announced for construction workers through the lockdown, and he is not alone in this. In the early months…

Zone snapshot Wards: 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78 Polling stations: 505 Population: 611680 (2013) 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: Improper road laying leading to excess flooding in settlements and houses. In Vetri Nagar in Kolathur, manholes were covered up in the road laying process. Many incomplete development projects. For example work on Stephenson Bridge across Otteri Nullah is still ongoing. Residents are wading through drainage water stagnating on the road daily. Water logging during the rainy season especially…

As Uttarakhand gets set to elect a new state government, we bring you the first of a two-part series on the state’s urban development challenges and possible solutions Uttarakhand faces a major challenge to develop its cities and towns. In the coming years, urban pressures will increase manifold due to the upcoming Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor, the Char Dham all-weather road and other central projects. To prepare its cities and towns to face these challenges, political parties need to have manifestos and visions that include relevant and sustainable components of urbanization. Uttarakhand is one of the fastest urbanizing states in India.…

On January 10th, a 19-year-old teenager shared an incident of domestic violence in Mumbai on the city-based website Safecity, which encourages citizens to report all kinds of violence. “My friend has an abusive household where her mother was always beaten up. It hasn't changed and due to lockdown, things had gotten worse as they couldn't get out,” she said. Like her, many others have been reporting and sharing incidents of violence on the website. So far in 2022, over 20 citizens have reported domestic violence cases in Mumbai anonymously on Safecity. Indeed, domestic violence cases in Mumbai have risen. In the…

Every year, rains in Mumbai claim lives and leave behind destruction to infrastructure and the city’s economy. Excessive flooding in the city is only increasing. The 2021 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned us about rising sea levels in Mumbai in the coming years, and, towards the end of the century, the city is set to see a 4.6 degree celsius rise in mean temperatures.  In January 2022, the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) released a report on emerging trends of climate change in Western India. The report provides trends for western…

“I’m 94 years and six months old,” emphasises Kamakshi Subramaniyan, who is busy preparing for her election campaign. Yes, the nonagenarian has filed her nominations for the upcoming local body polls for the post of corporation councillor. She will be contesting from ward 174, comprised of Besant Nagar and Adyar areas of Chennai. Known fondly as Kamakshi paati among the locals of Chennai, she is also the co-founder of SPARK, a civic forum, started in 2012 with the aim of helping the citizens of the city to tackle civic problems. SPARK helps Chennaiites by guiding them in approaching the right…

In continuation to the charter of demands submitted to the MLA candidates before the Assembly Elections held last year we, the  members of Community Welfare Brigade, are submitting the following Charter of Demands to all the potential candidates who are participating in the Corporation Elections in 2022 on behalf of the Residents of Ward 71 in Zone 6. As a citizen engagement group we would like to build a clean, safe and secure model neighbourhood community. On civic infrastructure and encroachments The traffic density on Perambur High Road, Madhavaram High Road and Paper Mills Road has increased significantly over the…

On January 22nd, a healthy and flourishing peepal tree, approximately 100 years old, was chopped at Azad Road in Vile Parle East. Junior Tree Officer of K East ward, Mr. Pradip Jadhav, arrived at the spot at 9:30 am** with his team to cut the tree. At the sight of this, I asked the officials about permission they had been granted for the operation, and learnt that the notice was given four years ago in December 2017. The permission to cut, after objections, was given in November 2018. Because of it’s outdatedness, in a constrained manner, I requested the officers…

Residents of the NCR town of Ghaziabad, which is part of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, have learnt one important lesson in recent years. That public health is an issue that residents have to solve for themselves through their RWAs, or other people’s associations. There was a distant hope, in vain as it turned out, that the new budget would at least mention public health, especially in the poll bound states. Not surprisingly, even though polling in this assembly segment is on February 10th, no poll manifesto as yet has promised anything that will improve the environment for better health. Administered by…