GENRE: In Focus

Despite five years of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Karnataka High Court and hundreds of court orders, Bengaluru is way behind several other cities in the country in managing its garbage and is living up to the epithet it has earned: ‘garbage city’.   Except for a few wards where some good work may be happening, one hardly sees any change on the ground in most areas. In the meantime, several other cities have moved far ahead of Bengaluru in managing their waste. No wonder Bengaluru fell to a position below 200th in the Swachh Bharat Survekshan last…

Let's face it. There's no way you can be sure that the organic food that you bought from the store was genuinely grown organically, unless and until you yourself have produced it. I say this because genuine organic food can only be produced by natural farming practices. Natural farming, again, isn't possible without an  integrated farm and the very few integrated farms that we find cater mostly for self consumption by the producer. When food is grown for commercial purposes, it is easier to produce, process and transport a single item in large quantities, than to manage 10 different items…

Srinivas (52), Mahadev Gowda (42), Narayana Swamy (35) died while they were cleaning the Collection Tank of the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in ND Sepal Apartments in HSR Layout. The apartment management association RWA of the 80-unit complex, largely occupied by software engineers, now finds itself charged with a crime under IPC section 304A. STP issue was in news recently because of a tussle between the government and the apartment owners. Following a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, the Government made it mandatory for even older apartment complexes to have STPs in their premises and added a penalty for failing…

When the story of Kanchanamala Pande, the silver medal winner at the Berlin para-swimming championship in 2017, hit the headlines, there was wide furore, and rightly so, over the tribulations that that she was made to go through. The grant sanctioned by the Government of India for six participants failed to reach them on time and Kanchanmala was forced to beg and borrow on the streets of Berlin in order to be able to stay there and participate in the tournament.  . If such is the treatment accorded to a para-sportsperson representing the country in a global tournament, one can…

The Revised Master Plan (RMP) 2031 is being scrutinised by the public. Most experts feel that too much priority has been given to archaic rather than progressive planning. Although the government has not conducted enough workshops or feedback meetings with the public, the draft is out for public comment. You can view all the rules here. In a workshop organised by the Environment Support Group (ESG), participants were taken aback when they learnt that every one of them, ranging from planners to industrialists, could become part of the planning process as a constitutional right! A bottoms-up approach is supposed to…

In August 2017, the Electricity Board (EB) office in Kasturba Nagar was moved to Thiruvanmiyur. This has proved to be extremely inconvenient for residents in Adyar, especially for senior citizens and older people. Most of them are not tech-savvy enough to pay the dues online, and travelling to Thiruvanmiyur is a big challenge for them. Distance and  commute are, however, not the only factors. FEDARA (Federation of Adyar Residents Associations, an umbrella organisation representing 30 Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) in the Adyar, Indira Nagar and Kasturba nagar area) has been consistently highlighting several other issues, which have been bothering residents.  For…

Three years back, Chithra Rajan ordered a Dell laptop from a major Indian e-commerce company. There was an ‘offer’ on the laptop - while it usually cost over Rs 40,000, the offer was for Rs 27,000. “The laptop was delivered to my office, and I only opened it when I got home. I was shocked to find that the laptop was not manufactured by Dell at all, but by some unknown company. It also did not have Microsoft OS installed as mentioned in the product description,” Chithra says. When she called the customer care number of the e-commerce company, she…

The indefinite strike by workers of the transport department has completely derailed commute in Metropolitan Chennai, a city lauded for its integrated public transport module. Thousands of commuters are stranded and roads are gridlocked in the city, but it is impossible to miss the sense the anger among transport department workers who have been off the roads for four days now. They did not call off the strike, despite being warned of termination from service by the Madras High Court. What could have prompted them to this level of desperation? It’s time to take a deeper look. The minimum ticket fare…

What do a 91 year 'young' activist, and a 40-something marine biologist have in common? A love for this city they call home, and a desire to help its citizens overcome their sense of helplessness in finding solutions to everyday civic problems.. Garbage not cleared? Road being relaid without milling? Storm water drains not cleaned before the monsoon? Electricity cables hanging dangerously in the open? In each of these situations, the solution is at hand. Help is often only a phone call away. But if we ask the average citizen on the road, the most common response will be  -…

Media focus on the fire that broke out and killed four in Mumbai’s residential Mamoon Manzil complex has been less compared to that on the fire tragedy in the same city in the end of December. The cause of the fire in this building is yet to be ascertained but no one would be surprised if it was pinned down to faulty management and violation of rules. Barely a week ago, the Kamala Mills tragedy got the Bruhan Mumbai Corporation (BMC) on its toes, throwing them into panic-stricken knee-jerk reaction: suspending five officials, galvanising authorities, managers, health and medical experts…