INTERVIEWS

It is said that circumstances define the course of one’s life. 15 years back Roja Sri, a young girl then, left Chidambaram for Chennai to get away from her father and step-mother who deprived her not only of her mother’s wealth, but also basic necessities such as food, shelter and clothing. But far from making her resentful and bitter, this made Roja Sri determined to dedicate her life to serving people, especially those who have no one to care for them. Today, the 34-year-old woman, popularly known as ‘Roja Amma’ is an example and inspiration as she has broken many…

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…

In the late 1980s, when the term “waste management” had not gained much currency in Indian cities, a banker-turned-environmental activist M B Nirmal started a cleanliness movement in Chennai. Called the Civic Exnora, it was considered as one of the largest environmental and civic movements having happened in the urban India. Civic Exnora was founded in 1989 by M B Nirmal who was then an officer with the Indian Overseas Bank. Exnora was started in an attempt to create awareness about cleanliness. Back in the 90s, the organisation played a major role in motivating and involving neighbourhoods in systematic waste…

It has been a year since Dr D Karthikeyan took charge as the Commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation. Within a few months of him taking charge as the commissioner, he was accorded the additional responsibility of holding the Special Officer’s post in the absence of a council which ended its term last October. GCC is not new to Karthikeyan. It is for the third time that he is serving as the Commissioner of the Greater Chennai Corporation. In a quick chat with Citizen Matters, the Corporation Commissioner speaks about some of the significant issues bothering the city. Excerpts from the…

At the age of 57, when a majority of them get ready to settle comfortably into retired lives, Chennai-based businessman VBR Menon graduated from a law school in Bengaluru. The seasoned businessman became a full time law practitioner in 2014, when he was 62. Over the last two years he has been filing only Public Interest Litigations (PILs) on several significant issues bothering Chennai, including land and water. His cases have been seriously pursued by the Madras High Court and have led to the judiciary issuing several directions to the authorities. In an interview with Citizen Matters, VBR Menon talks…

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…

There’s a new sound enlivening the streets of the busy, populous city of Mysuru in southern Karnataka, and it goes ‘Trin-Trin’. The city recently launched the country’s first city-wide public bicycle sharing system (PBS) under a project jointly funded by the World Bank, the Global Environmental Fund (GEF), the Mysuru City Corporation and the state directorate of urban land transport, better known as DULT. Branded ‘Trin-Trin - Pedal with Pride’, the initiative sports a dense network of hubs consisting of bicycles, which individuals can share on a short term easy-rental basis. The Mysuru City Corporation owns and maintains the bicycles,…

In the first part of the interview, you saw Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Praveen Sood speaking about various issues related to traffic management in the city. In this second and last part of the interview, he makes elaborate comments about issues such as the most challenging type of crime that Bengaluru police face, the drug menace, of the conflicts between foreign nationals and local people and how prepared are police for the election year. Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Praveen Sood. Pic: Akshatha M How is the nature of crime changing with changing times? What is the most challenging type of…

On the new year’s eve the State government appointed senior IPS officer Praveen Sood as the Police Commissioner of Bengaluru. On the same night, incidents of 'mass molestation' were reported in the city, showing Bengaluru in a bad light. Now that the dust has settled, and the police chief is completing three months in his office, he says he is working with an agenda which he terms as “citizen empowerment.” In a detailed interview with the Citizen Matters, the Police Commissioner tells why it is important for city police to shift from citizen awareness to citizen empowerment - to make…

It’s been just over a month since the Jallikattu protests on Marina, and the issue has faded from the headlines. The sport is being held, albeit under certain regulations and with some changes, but there are some questions that still linger. One of the primary reasons cited by the educated, city-bred protester against the ban on Jallikattu had been the undesirable implications for native cattle breeds and the indirect impact on the milk we consume. But can the resumption of a sport really revive the native cattle industry and is it enough incentive for farmers to turn away from foreign…