GENRE: In Focus

The greatest challenge today before Indian cities, smart or not, is garbage. Walk through any neighbourhood in a big city and if you don’t spot at least one public bin overflowing with mixed waste, or mounds of the same dumped on the sidewalks or streets themselves, you are mighty impressed. And so I was when I recently spent a few hours in Manali, to understand the work being done by zonal officers and conservancy workers in the area. Chennai North is made up of five zones - Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Tondiarpet and Royapuram - spread over about 130 sq km.…

Even after five years of introducing the 25 per cent free education quota under the Right to Education Act, many hurdles have ensured that the implementation remains a problem. Continued malpractices observed in the implementation of the Act form the majority of them. During the first three years of implementing 25 per cent quota reservation, the major hurdle in the process was a large number of seats allotted remaining vacant. Officials say this was mainly because, single applicant would get admission in multiple schools and there was no system in place to prevent this from happening as the seat allocation…

Disaster struck two nautical miles off Ennore’s Kamarajar port just before dawn on January 28 when two cargo ships--LPG-carrier** BW Maple bearing the flag of the UK’s Isle of Man and MT Dawn Kanchipuram, the latter loaded to the brim with petroleum oil and lubricants, collided due to poor inter-vessel communication. The LPG tanker, on its way out of the port, suffered a major dent. The incoming Dawn Kanchipuram was left with two holes that tore through it. Pregnant with oil and lubricants, the cargo ship released a considerable amount of the furnace oil stored for fuelling purposes** into the surrounding…

Arun (name changed), a driver by profession, admitted his three-and-half-year-old daughter to a prestigious “international” school at Cox Town in Bengaluru around three years ago. His daughter was lucky enough to get a seat under the 25 per cent quota of the Right to Education Act. The Act intends to provide free education to children from disadvantaged and weaker sections of the society in private unaided schools. The school was located at a distance of half kilometres from Arun’s home and his daughter would walk to school everyday. In fact, the school’s positioning served the purpose of ‘neighbourhood schooling,’ that…

Over the past few years, Chennai has witnessed one natural disaster after another. Every time, officials and citizens themselves come up with knee jerk reactions and post mortem analysis of the underlying causes, but strangely, scant little is noted about the big picture of ecological damage in the city. Understanding the natural resources of Chennai and addressing their degradation in a sustained, systematic way is critical if the city wishes to avoid a Doomsday scenario in the future. In an earlier article, we had discussed the rich heritage and long history of Chennai. Since 1639, Madras has expanded vastly in…

The increasing emphasis by the government on the Aadhaar framework as the basis of a developing social security net for the citizen makes it ever more relevant and important to have. Despite Supreme Court rulings to the contrary, the Central and several state governments have made Aadhaar mandatory for citizens to avail a range of services and to get benefits of various government schemes. Even the Union Budget presented by Arun Jaitley on February 1st indicated an obvious push for Aadhaar, with recommendations for various facilities linked to the unique identification number. Yet, the ordinary citizen continues to have privacy…

67250… 7328…. Are they mere numbers? No, they are the number of people involved in road accidents in Tamil Nadu and Chennai respectively in the year 2015. With timed traffic lights that are mostly in working condition, police personnel at the signals and an efficient emergency management system, Chennai’s roads appear safe. But statistics tell a different tale. As per NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) data, Tamil Nadu records the highest number of road accidents; among 53 Indian cities studied, Chennai topped the list, accounting for 11.9% of total road accidents – a fact that the city cannot be proud…

It was not a special day in Chennai. Yet, scores of people were seen running towards  Marina Beach. Not for a leisurely walk, but to stand up for a cause that has been bothering Tamil Nadu, and particularly its rural community, for some years now. Since 2004, Pongal in Tamil Nadu has been marred by controversy over a custom that is inseparable from the observance of the festival in the state. In other states, Pongal is primarily a festival of farmers and the Sun god, but in the rural southern areas of Tamil Nadu, it has been inextricably linked with…

Kaveri (name changed), hails from a remote village in Raichur district. It has been two years since she shifted to Bengaluru and started working in a construction site. Her employer would pay her Rs 6,000 a month in two instalments. The money she earned added up to the family income and was used mostly to look after her three girl children, whom she sees as a ray of hope. She admitted all her girls to a private school back home with an intention to provide them good education. But last two months have been considerably tough for Kaveri. She has…

Orion Mall. Pic: Shree D N Around August 2016, as BBMP began its storm water drain encroachment clearance work following flooding in various parts of the city, a case involving a high profile encroacher came to light. The alleged encroacher was Brigade Group. A survey report submitted by the Land Records Joint Director to the Commissioner of Survey, Settlement and Land Records on September 2nd, estimated that the Brigade Gateway that houses Orion Mall in Yeshwanthpur was constructed on 3.4 acre of B Kharab land which was meant for a storm water drain (SWD). In the concluding words of his…