GENRE: In Focus

The rains have stopped disturbing the city, but reports of dengue cases are still trickling in. In the post-rain season, buzzing armies of mosquitoes breed wherever they can, continuing to carry the sting of dengue and other mosquito-related diseases. What’s the reason behind this situation? People often complain that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is not doing enough, or even anything, to fight the mosquito menace after the rains. Currently, there is some anxiety related to the lack of efforts for “spraying insecticides” in common perception, or “fogging”. Anant, a resident of HSR Layout, says that BBMP doesn’t seem…

For our English readers: A few days ago, scores of dead fish washed up onto the beaches of Adyar, and it is believed that the contamination of sea water with untreated sewage, was the primary reason for this. Once your sewage leaves your house (if within the limits of Chennai Corporation) it is pumped to the nearest sewage treatment plant (STP), where it must be treated before the water is released into the Adyar and Cooum rivers, and Buckingham Canal. Where the drainage system does not exist, the sewage is collected in septic tanks, and transported by lorries to the…

It has been just over a week since Mumbai was lashed by the highest 24-hour December rain in a decade due to cyclone Ockhi. Temperatures dropped sharply, schools were shut, and companies issued advisories to employees. But when such a disaster strikes the city, the most vulnerable are invariably its homeless. Brijesh Arya, an activist working with the homeless in Mumbai, mentions many cases from Mumbai’s monsoon floods this year. One is the case of Anju Kharwa, who held her child on her shoulders for as long as the floods raged. The flood that lasted nearly two days had caused…

Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation’s survey for Cantonment metro station has created panic among the residents of Maangalya apartments in Benson Town. In part 1 of this story, Citizen Matters had reported that the mid-tunnel shaft between Cantonment and Pottery Town stations will come up at Maangalya apartment site, if Cantonment metro station is built at its original location as per the Detailed Project Report (DPR). The shaft is needed because the length of this stretch would be above 1.5 kms. The DPR had mentioned a specific location for the metro station — right opposite Cantonment railway station’s main entrance, under…

As the controversy on the location of the upcoming Cantonment metro station continues, Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) has left many questions unanswered. While a citizens’ group has been demanding metro station right in front of the railway station where it was planned originally,  another is demanding it at the alternate location proposed by BMRC, at Bamboo Bazaar. With BMRC refusing to answer questions raised by citizens and the media, the suspense remains. Cantonment metro station was originally supposed to come up right opposite the Cantonment railway station, under its parking lot, as per the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for…

Part 1 and Part 2 of our series on rainwater harvesting (RWH) exposed how the government as well as citizens have failed in making the most of a scheme that, if implemented well, could have set Chennai as a worthy example in water management. While negligence on the part of authorities has been a crucial factor, lack of awareness on RWH as a whole also plays a major role. There is a need to dispel the ignorance or misconceptions among residents, many of whom feel that the construction of RWH structures cost a bomb.   Experts who have worked on…

This January, Neha Suri, a Delhi resident, got refund and compensation from the builder who took money from her offering an apartment and never handed it over. Neha had paid Rs 46 lakh to the builder in 2007. The builder had promised to hand over the apartment in 2010, but never did. In 2015, Neha filed a complaint at the National Consumer Redressal Commission. This January, the Commission ordered the builder to refund her Rs 46 lakh along with simple interest of 10% per year on this amount, and litigation costs of Rs 10,000. In another consumer case this April,…

Not a civil servant. Not a Councillor. Not a full-time activist. Just another Chennaiite, like any of us. While most of his age prefer to spend time with family, go on vacations and concentrate on personal and professional goals, 50-year-old C R Balaji clicks pictures of badly laid roads and illegally dumped garbage during his commute to and from work and reports it to the appropriate government authorities. If you are a resident of Mylapore, you cannot miss this tall, middle-aged man going around on his bike taking pictures to highlight the various civic issues in the neighbourhood. And his…

As dusk descends over Thozhuvur village, 41 km from Chennai,  S Kasinathan, rests on a small chair in his thatched roof house. He coughs incessantly and curses his fate for being a burial ground worker. The 42-year-old man from this village in Thiruvallur district has just cremated a body and has had to inhale the smoke for hours. Kasinathan laughs sarcastically when asked why he was not wearing his safety gear. “I do not even get a monthly salary here, despite working as a ‘vettiyan’ (one who cremates and bury the dead) for over 15 years now. Asking for a…

If you have walked through the IIT Kanpur campus of late, you would have seen a lot more cycling activity than usual, thanks to Ola’s ‘Pedal’, a new cycle-sharing pilot project. Given the results of its Kanpur experiment, the company hopes to expand gradually to more college campuses, residential townships and tech parks. Ola put out a statement that summed up its aim to steer the activity in various campuses through “superior technology and availability to book on the same app…” that is hoped to solve “larger issues like pollution and congestion…” Check out its video here. Other commercial initiatives…