INTERVIEWS

This January, BBMP  floated a new tender to deal with the city's perennial garbage problem. D Randeep, Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management and Health), BBMP, sat down for a chat with 'Citizens Live' to answer niggling doubts about the controversial tender. "The central issue is still segregation. The new policy is that wet and sanitary waste will be picked up by BBMP everyday. Dry waste will be picked up by NGOs, waste collectors," he said. He stressed that it was therefore imperative that we, the general public, segregate our waste. "If you don't, we do have provisions to penalise people;…

“When a 70 year old person is able to fill a pothole in hours, why is the government failing, especially when they spend hundreds of crores of rupees on other issues?” asks Gangadhara Tilak Katnam. “How is the helmet going to help when there is a pothole,” he wonders. It has been nine years and counting since January 2011. At the last count on January 3 2019, 1359 potholes have been filled. “I used to keep a tally in my diary, but then my son helped me feed it on to social media, and that recording continues,” he says. Clearly,…

After a month long discussion on everything about Bangalore’s traffic through the prism of the steel flyover and the elevated corridor, we wanted a break. We couldn’t think of a better way to destress than with music. We headed to the Indian Music Experience at JP Nagar to chat with its founders, Dr Suma Sudhindra (who was recently awarded Sangeeth Natak Academy Puraskar for 2017) and Manasi Prasad. Many of us grew up humming along with Julie Andrews that Do come from a deer, Re meant a drop of golden sun... But if you want to know the origins of…

Atishi Marlena's soft smiles belie the steely timbre in her voice when she speaks of issues. She is the point-person for education and has made it a central electoral plank for the fledgeling Aam Aadmi Party governing Delhi. Though she was "dismissed" as advisor to the Education Minister Manish Sisodia by the Centre in April 2018, she had by then spearheaded eight key projects, calling for 120 meetings - almost eight per week - since the beginning of the year. Atishi was christened 'Marlena' as a fusion of 'Marx' and 'Lenin' by her leftist Delhi University professor parents, though she recently dropped…

Over the Republic Day weekend, around 5000 Chennaiites flocked to an exhibition that showcased an art form that dates back to the days of the Indus Valley civilisation and is perhaps one of the oldest upcycling methods that has been traditionally and indigenously practised: Quilting. The first edition of the India Quilt Festival took place from 25- 27 January, 2019. The event, a pioneer in the space, featured competitions, stalls, workshops and lectures on quilting. Citizen Matters spoke to Varsha Sundararajan, one of the organisers of the fest. Does India have a special connection with quilting? India has a 4000-year-old…

In an interview with Citizen Matters done in 2016, Rajendra Kumar Mishra, popularly known as R K Mishra, had said that the proposed elevated corridor project would encourage public transport. This was at the height of the public opposition to the proposed Steel flyover where the pros and cons of flyovers were being hotly debated. In the last part of our four part series on the Steel Flyover/ elevated corridor projects, we spoke to Misra, who as a member of the Chief Minister's Vision Group, had batted for the Elevated Corridor Project. Right at the outset, Mishra denied ever being…

''This year has been a welcome sight for birdwatchers as there has been an increase in the number of migratory birds in the city. The numbers seem to have increased in spite of the poor monsoons the city saw this year,'' says environmentalist E Seshan. Although the water levels in Pallikaranai and Vedanthangal run low following a scant northeast monsoon, these winged friends have made several other water bodies in the city their home. A retired chief photographer of the Geological Survey of India, E Seshan, has been studying the pattern and habits of migratory birds in Chennai for the…

The third part of this series on Steel flyover took us to the office of Naresh Narasimhan who was one of the principal architects of the Steel Flyover Beda movement which saw people from the city form a human chain from Chalukya Circle to Mehkri Circle on October 16 in 2016. A noted architect from the city, Narasimhan was quick to point out to me as we set up the camera: “I am not against flyovers, but against long ones which exceed a kilometre.” As the camera rolled, he got down to the nuts and bolts of this argument. “We…

Our first conversation with Vijayan Menon from Citizen Action Forum about the proposed steel flyover had raised a very valid point about the context of the project. Why was it only about getting to the airport? What about the people who live in the vicinity of the major choke points - Hebbal, Mekhri Circle etc? What did they want? So we sat down with the President of Hebbal Sarovar Layout Resident Welfare Association, Vijay Kumar Saya to find out about the local sentiment. A resident of North Bengaluru, the elderly man has lived and worked in the area for the…

Ever since the smart city project commenced in T Nagar, the area has been in the limelight. Organisations such as The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) have been working closely with Chennai Corporation and Chennai Smart City Limited, to understand the challenges  particular to the locality, and propose sustainable mobility interventions. In an interview with Citizen Matters Chennai, Aswathy Dilip, Senior Programme Manager at ITDP India talks about the Smart City projects and how they have the potential to propel T Nagar on to the league of international cities and neighbourhoods. Ashwathy leads the Complete Streets strategy, policy and project…