OPINION

For over two decades, residents along Chennai's Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) have been fed a steady diet of promises about piped water supply. From desalination plants to reservoirs, successive governments have announced grand projects that would finally quench the IT corridor's thirst. Yet, as of January 2026, OMR residents are still struggling with inadequate piped water and are forced to rely on expensive private tankers or depleted groundwater that grows more brackish each year. The original promise It began with hope. In July 2004, the then Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, announced central government support for a desalination plant near Chennai.…

The neighbourhood of JP Nagar 7th phase in the southern part of Bengaluru is home to three lakes — Sarakki, Puttenahalli, and Chunchaghatta, alongside a sprawl of well-planned high-rise apartments, upscale restaurants, reputed schools, and proximity to the city’s cultural hub. It’s everything a modern urban citizen could ask for. In reality, it’s an area teetering on the edge, willing to ruin itself in a bid to cash in on its opportunity. Convenience at a cost A map showing the RBI Layout Main Road and the surrounding localities. Pic courtesy: Google Maps. Before taking a peek into the area, let’s…

Maximum City, Glamour City, City of Dreams, City of Struggles — Mumbai wears many names and identities. One of the world's most populous cities, it houses a staggering 2.17 crore people in just 603 square kilometres. Its carrying capacity in terms of accommodating a workforce was exceeded a decade ago, yet the daily inflow continues. Sky-high, artificially inflated real estate prices have pushed many to the distant suburbs, making the daily commute for work or study an arduous struggle. And yet the mobility solutions that the city administration and other powers that be come up with are not only inadequate,…

On August 11 2025, the Supreme Court of India directed all authorities in the National Capital Territory — extending to Delhi, Noida, Gurugram and Ghaziabad — to immediately relocate all stray dogs from all localities in the region. The apex court ordered all street dogs to be shifted to dog shelters, from where they must not be released under any circumstances. Any individual or organisation found to obstruct the work of authorities capturing and moving the dogs shall face legal consequences. The order came from a bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan, hearing a suo moto case…

The recent warnings from BBMP to citizen-led lake groups against raising public funds for lake maintenance have raised several important questions. The Palike has also sent a notice to one of the groups, the Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust (PNLIT), to stop maintenance works around the lake. In response, PNLIT, incidentally the first citizen group in Bengaluru to formally maintain a lake, announced their withdrawal from all maintenance activities at Puttenahalli lake in JP Nagar.  In the absence of BBMP support, lake groups had anyway been struggling to continue their work over the past five years. Now, as these groups…

In June 2025, Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister referred to the demolition of ‘Madrasi Camp’ in Delhi as a “humanitarian crisis,” calling for basic amenities, transport support, and dignified resettlement. Yet, across Chennai and Tamil Nadu, evictions and resettlement continue. These actions often deprive marginalised urban communities of their dignity, rights, and safety due to the lack of a strong policy. One recent example that illustrates these contradictions is the forced eviction of families from Anakaputhur to the remote and poorly connected site of Keeraipakkam, where women and children struggle to access work and school. This reflects a wider, ongoing pattern…

For those of us who rejoiced for long at the complete absence of large outdoor hoardings (billboards in American parlance) in Chennai, those days of happiness may be very limited. As per a recent news item, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has invited those interested in putting them up to apply via an online system connected to its website. The civic body has not elaborated on how it has overturned a decision taken by the party in power, both at the Corporation and state levels. And it has also not elaborated on how it proposes to prevent these from becoming…

The dust has settled over the IPL frenzy and the Royal Challengers’ win, following the tragic stampede at Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium, and the government is working to establish accountability. Now, it is time to calmly review the systemic flaws that have come to light and introspect on how citizens may also have contributed to the tragedy.  What appears to be the chief cause is the ‘culture of lawlessness’ that pervades our entire society — from elected representatives and bureaucrats to private enterprises, fans, and ordinary citizens. Did the government compromise public safety?    What was the urgency, or even the necessity, for…

Now that the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill (GBGB) has received the Governor's assent and has become an Act (GBGA), its troubling provisions that overturn the 74th Constitutional Amendment (74th CAA) must be challenged. The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Nagarapalika Act clearly outlines the necessity of the constitutional amendment. It states: “In many States local bodies have become weak and ineffective on account of a variety of reasons, including the failure to hold regular elections, prolonged supersession, and inadequate devolution of powers and functions. As a result, Urban Local Bodies are not able to perform effectively as vibrant…

May 15th, 2025, marks a historic yet troubling milestone in Bengaluru’s urban governance. With the Government of Karnataka implementing the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act (GBGA), what could have been a moment to strengthen democratic decentralisation has instead exposed deep fault lines: The erosion of constitutional intent Structural failings in implementation The sidelining of local governance mechanisms Local self-government being weakened The failure of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to deliver effective governance has been used as the justification for enacting the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act (GBGA). However, this move appears to be a deliberate effort to sideline the 74th…