GENRE: In Focus

The recent spell of rains in Chennai saw large-scale inundation across the city. Visuals of residents wading in knee-deep water dominated the news. Many residents saw water enter their homes and found their belongings destroyed. Anguish and anger poured out on social media posts of those who went through this harrowing experience. And all along came questions about the city's many stormwater drains and why they failed to serve the purpose. Are the questions being asked of the stormwater drain project in the city legitimate? Could design flaws in the stormwater drains be a contributing factor to wide-spread water stagnation? What…

Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, is one of the fastest-growing metropolitans in the country. The growing population and city expansion has stressed the existing infrastructure of Chennai, especially the transport systems. The transport sector needs to be planned to cater to the existing needs and meet the future demands of the growing population by taking into account changing travel patterns. Multiple studies have been conducted to devise a cohesive transportation plan for Chennai such as the Integrated Transport Plan 1977, Madras Area Transport Study 1986, Madras Route Rationalisation Study 1986, Traffic and Transportation Study for MMA 1986, Comprehensive…

It did not last long. 10 days after the reopening of schools in Delhi for Classes 1 to 5, they had to be closed again because of severe air pollution in the national capital region. According to the latest, schools will remain closed till November 21st, but if they do reopen after that, the experiences and observations reported here from early November may well continue to present the true scenario among schools, teachers and students. Sagar and Sonali were overjoyed when they learnt that they would be going back to their school in Ghazipur from November 1st. Their mother Kriti…

It was around 5 am on November 7th, Sunday, when VS Jayaraman was woken up by his brother, who stayed in the ground floor of their apartment. There was considerable commotion at their apartment complex during the early hours of that day. Water had entered all the flats in the ground floor of the building, which is located on Motilal street in T Nagar, as a result of the heavy rains and the subsequent flooding in Chennai through the night of November 6th and the early hours of November 7th. “We immediately notified the Corporation officials as well as the…

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government in 2010 passed the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) Act with the intention to oversee and coordinate the activities of the various agencies involved in the planning and operation of the transportation system in the city. However, a decade since the Act was passed, the much talked about nodal body is yet to get off the mark and remains largely on paper. Chennai city is famous for its multiple modes of public transport in the form of suburban trains and the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) operated by the Southern Railways, the Metro…

Six months after Minister for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari introduced the much awaited vehicle scrappage scheme in the Lok Sabha, the Delhi government on September 27th announced its new policy to scrap all 15-year-old diesel vehicles in Delhi and the NCR. “Diesel vehicles older than 15 years will be impounded and sent to the scrapping yard if they are found plying on city roads or parked in public places,” said Delhi Transport Commissioner Ashish Kundra. The scrappage policy announced by Gadkari is a government-funded programme to get old vehicles off the roads. This is expected to reduce pollution,…

India has, over the years, seen several schemes that promised free or subsidised medicine. In 2008, the then UPA government proposed a Jan Aushadi scheme for nationwide subsidised supply of generic drugs. However, there were not many takers for the scheme at the time. While some chalked it up to poor supply chain management, others believe heavy pressure from the pharmaceutical industry was the reason the scheme failed to take off. Tamil Nadu had already established government stores in 1994 that provided certain drugs at reduced rates. But other states were slow to follow. Only some states like Rajasthan (2011)…

“I feel like I have gotten so used to all the issues with Chennai’s suburban rail that I don’t even feel like complaining about it anymore,” says Sivaraman, with a half hearted smile as he waits at the Thiruvanmiyur railway station in Chennai, to board the train to Chennai Beach station after a day’s work. When asked if he has ever tried lodging a complaint about all these 'issues' that he refers to, he said he has done so several times but no change has been made. However, the 54-year-old, who has been using the suburban rail in Chennai regularly…

For the residents of Delhi's many slums and jhuggi-jhopri clusters, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's recent statement that the government is working on a drainage master plan must have sounded a cruel joke. Especially at a time when Delhi had just had its wettest September since 1944. Till September 16th this year, Delhi witnessed 1159.4 mm of rainfall, the highest since 1964 and the third-highest ever, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data. Inevitably, the worst sufferers of this deluge were the 18.5% of the city’s population (estimated at 31,181,376 in the latest revision of the UN World Urbanization Prospects) living…

Translated by Sandhya Raju தமிழகத்தில் இந்த ஆண்டு ஜூலை வரை 2185 பேர் டெங்கு காய்ச்சலால் பாதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளதாக, சுகாதார சேவைகள் இயக்குநரகம், சுகாதாரம் மற்றும் குடும்ப நல அமைச்சகம் (MoHFW), தரவு தெரிவிக்கிறது. கூடுதலாக, சென்னை மாநகராட்சியின் தரவுகள் படி, ஆகஸ்ட் மாதத்தில் மட்டும் சென்னையில் 100 பேரும், செப்டம்பர் மாதத்தில் 129 பேரும் பாதிப்புக்கு உள்ளாகியிருப்பதாக தெரிவிக்கிறது. இது கடந்த ஆண்டு தமிழகம் முழுவதும் இருந்த 2410 (MoHFW) என்ற எண்ணிக்கையை கடந்துள்ளது. மாநிலத்தில் மழைக்காலம் தொடங்கியதும் இந்த நிலை வரும் என்பதால் இது ஒன்றும் புதிதல்ல. 2020 ஆண்டு முன்பு வரை மாநிலத்தில் அதிக அளவு பாதிப்பு இருந்ததும் குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது. ஆனால், தற்போதைய பெருந்தொற்று காலத்தில் சுகாதார மற்றும் நிரவாகத் துறையின் முழு கவனமும் தொற்று பரவலை தடுப்பதில் உள்ளதால், டெங்கு காய்ச்சல் கவலை அளிப்பதாக உள்ளது. சென்னைவாசிகள், சுகாதார அலுவலர்கள் மற்றும் மாநகராட்சி அலுவலகர்களிடம் கொசுக்கள்…