EDITORS' PICK

As the Lok Sabha 2024 election is underway, political parties have released their election manifestos. What do the parties promise for us urban residents? How do they plan to make our cities sustainable and liveable? Why cities matter In 2022, approximately a third of the total population in India lived in cities. The trend shows an increase in urbanisation by more than 4% over the last decade, which means that people have moved away from rural areas to find work and make a living in the cities. The demographic dividend of India is significant, with 65% of its population being…

Once a year, I inadvertently overhear someone wondering aloud about the sea level while crossing the Mahim or Thane Creek bridges without realising that the sea has tides. Similar conversations are heard at the beaches too. The Bandra Worli Sea Link, which now features in almost every movie about Mumbai, as seen from Mahim. Pic: MS Gopal Not being aware of tides often leads to lovers being stranded on the rocks along the coast, or even people getting washed away by waves during the monsoons. People regularly throng the sea-fronts of Mumbai - sometimes the beaches, sometimes the promenades, but…

As India gets ready to vote to decide who will represent the country in Parliament, Citizen Matters is speaking to elected representatives from Chennai, ahead of the Lok Sabha 2024 elections. As part of this series, we did an email interview with T Sumathy alias Thamizhachi Thangapandian, incumbent MP from Chennai South constituency. Thamizhachi has been given the ticket by her party DMK to contest from the same constituency in the 2024 polls. Chennai South and Thamizhachi Thangapandian Chennai South constituency comprises of Mylapore, Saidapet, Virugambakkam, Velachery, Sholinganallur and Thyagaraya Nagar. A poet, writer, educationist and theatre person, Thamizhachi is the daughter…

With the 2024 Lok Sabha elections around the corner, the candidates contesting in the polls are busy campaigning to garner votes. Every one of them makes their poll promises during these campaigns, but very few of these are fulfilled in reality. Voters in the city want pending issues to be addressed. Meanwhile, various civic groups in the city have a plethora of demands that they are putting forward for the political parties and their candidates representing the different constituencies in Chennai. Here are a few such demands that the civic groups in Chennai would like to highlight for the progress…

Chennai North is a Lok Sabha constituency composed of the assembly segments including Royapuram, Kolathur, T.V.K.Nagar, Perambur, Thiruvottiyur and Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar. This constituency elected its first Member of Parliament in 1957. The incumbent MP is Dr. Kalanidhi Veeraswamy. Chennai North is not only home to many red-category industries that stretch from North Chennai through Manali to Ennore but also hosts the city’s largest garbage dump — Kodungaiyur dump yard. The constituency has two coal-fired power plants and their ash dumps, coal stacking yards, a 10.5 million tonnes/year petroleum refinery, dozens of petrochemical industries, fertiliser plants, three large ports and…

One of the three Lok Sabha constituencies representing the city, Chennai South comprises localities maintained by two different civic bodies: Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and Tambaram Corporation. And thus, the issues prevailing in the constituency are also contrasting. While the localities under Tambaram Corporation are grappling with the lack of basic amenities, those under GCC require improvement in the amenities provided decades ago. Sholinganallur is one of the largest assembly constituencies, with a voter base of six lakh. Chennai South constituency boasts a highly educated populace, with a significant presence of IT industries and educational institutions. Unique to this area…

In 2021, some street vendors informed Mohit Valecha, Delhi in-charge of the National Hawker Federation (NHF), that officers of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) were giving out loan application forms to shopkeepers at Saraswati camp, RK Puram, under the PM SVANidhi scheme. “By the time we reached there, the officers had distributed applications to around 12 of the 20 shopkeepers there. These were junior officers. When we questioned them, they said they did so to meet their targets, and left soon,” says Mohit, who is also All India Youth President of NHF. “I don’t know if the shopkeepers eventually…

Within just a few decades, Bengaluru has grown into the third largest city and the fifth largest metropolitan area of the country, with over 13 million people. The city’s rapid development is evident in the rise of built-up area, which has increased 37.4% in 2002 to 93.3% in 2020. In just 40 years, the extent of water bodies has reduced from 3.4% (1973) to less than 1% (2013), placing Bengaluru’s water resources under tremendous stress. Consequently, the city has come to depend heavily on Cauvery water and private water tankers or individual borewells to meet its daily demand. The overexploitation…

On Saturday, March 23rd, Oorvani Foundation hosted the first ever edition of the India Civic Summit, an annual event envisioned as a unique convening of people working in the urban civic space. The Summit provided a platform for them to come together to learn, get inspired and celebrate their journeys. In today’s time, where our cities face such overwhelming challenges — from traffic to water scarcity, from safety issues to vanishing commons and ecosystems — the need for citizen engagement is higher than ever. And that’s one of the reasons that the efforts and stories of the initiatives being undertaken…

A popular quote by WH Auden says, "Thousands have lived without love, not one without water." I am deeply convinced that it is true, especially in present times, where the planned urban cities are facing acute water shortage on a regular basis, along with rural and remote areas. One of them is Dombivli. Dombivli, with its rapidly expanding population and insufficient infrastructure, has been grappling with water scarcity for years. I live in an integrated smart city with more than 100 residential buildings built near Dombivli. Currently almost 2,00,000 citizens reside in more than a 1000 flats. Facilities such as…