GENRE: In Focus

Indian cities are not altogether unfamiliar with marches. Over the past few years, an increasingly awakening civil society has publicly gathered for a variety of causes - from freedom of speech to women’s safety to economic equality. Come August 9th however, for the first time in the country, you can join fellow citizens across India in a march for the cause of science, demanding robust funding for science education and research and pressing for governmental policies guided by scientific evidence. Eminent scientists, researchers and teachers have come together to put out an appeal to citizens across the country to come…

In the previous story of the series on Ejipura housing project for Economically Weaker Sections, critical issues in the project implementation and how the developer considers all those issues as trivial were covered. This story will tell you how the BBMP has goofed up with the concession agreement of the project and why it might lead to a conflict between the two parties. In 2012, soon after the BBMP and Maverick’s plan to build EWS quarters in Ejipura under public-private partnership (PPP) model gained focus, several individuals and organisations opposed the arrangement of using the land meant for EWS families…

In the first and second part of the series we explained how the concept of PPP model for Ejipura EWS quarters evolved and the reasons for the delay in implementation. This part will explore the nitty-gritty of project plan sanction. Why did the BBMP give plan sanction only for half segment of the project but has refused to approve other half of the project that comprises commercial establishment to be shared between the City Corporation and Maverick Holdings? When on May 31st, 2017, the High Court passed an order directing Maverick Holdings - the project proponent of Ejipura EWS quarters…

In 2012, Hyderabad became the first Indian city to have a City Biodiversity Index (CBI), at least on paper. As an assessment tool, the Index is an invaluable tool for city authorities to monitor and evaluate biodiversity with a view to aid conservation efforts. Launched amid much fanfare to coincide with Hyderabad hosting the UN Convention on Biodiversity in 2012, the Index is now defunct. It has not been updated or used since its launch by Hyderabad’s civic bodies. Similarly, the Biological Diversity Act (2002) has provisions for establishing Biodiversity Management Committees in all local bodies, whether Panchayats or city…

As the new Goods and Services Tax was rolled out, sanitary pads were listed as attracting 12% GST. Following this, many women activists demanded the government waive off taxes on sanitary pads, while many others went all out to defend the taxes. As a result, the nation is finally talking about sanitary pads! A raging debate in particular was fuelled on social media by the media statements of Kannada actor and member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Malavika Avinash. A clip from Prajavani, a Kannada newspaper, made it to social media, which quoted her as saying that sanitary pads were…

In the previous story, Garuda Group Managing Director Uday B Garudachar shared his version of the story about Ejipura EWS quarters project. The second part of the series, brings out the chronology of events that happened in connection to the project and where it stands as on today. In January 2013, the world came crashing down for over 900 families that were living in the Ejipura EWS (Economically Weaker Section) quarters near Koramangala, when the BBMP along with the building giant Maverick Holdings began to evict the poor families, to make way for new EWS quarters. It has been over…

If you just happen to drive along the wide, tree-lined Southern Avenue -- aptly named for its location in the southern part of the city of Kolkata and the giant trees that form a canopy along much of its stretch -- you may not be able to fully fathom the beauty of the 192-acre lung space of the city that you have just passed by. But if you have a moment to spare and enter the sprawling precincts of the Rabindra Sarobar Lake to the south of the main thoroughfare, you will undoubtedly be drawn forever to this verdant sanctuary…

They are always a familiar sight – MCD workers patiently sweeping the tiny green leaves that rain down in a never-ending shower from the evergreen trees that line Delhi’s neighbourhoods; children playing with the long brown seed pods scattered on pavements; lovers resting against its muscular trunk. If ever a tree has ‘gone native’, it is the vilayati kikar (Prosopis juliflora). The Mexican tree species was first brought into the city by the British who wanted a hardy tree that grew fast in Delhi’s arid soil to best implement their idea of an ‘ideal’ colonial capital with avenues lined by…

Every day, thousands of residential homes and apartment complexes across suburban Chennai, which are not connected to the underground drainage network of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB), are at the mercy of the private sewage lorries which remove the sewage water from their septic tanks. The lorry-owners demand anywhere between Rs 750 - 1000 per tanker load. Not satisfied with this, and driven by the sole objective of maximising their profits, they illegally dump the entire raw sewage water from the lorries into open fields, lake beds and storm water drains. The capacity of a tanker…

The lesser known 200-year-old Buckingham Canal which was used for navigation once by the Britons is nothing today, but just a canal that carries sewage water within the limits of Chennai, largely due to the poor waste management and rampant encroachments that prevail in the city. The canal flows the entire longitudinal length of the city of Chennai in varying forms and uses. The width of the canal between the Cooum and the Adyar River has been reduced to less than 6 metres, which used to be almost 60 metres in the past. Just on top of the canal runs…