ULB

The National Coalition for Inclusive and Sustainable Urbanization, comprised of a group of people across different parts of the country, is involved in exploring questions pertaining to the city and whom the urban is meant for. The Coalition has recently put out a charter, endorsed by 150+ organizations and 2 lakh signatories across 40 cities, that lays out a number of steps that can be taken to make development in cities more inclusive and sustainable, keeping the real ‘Citymakers’ - urban poor and worker groups - and their rights at the centre of discourse and action. Right to Housing and…

There are perhaps not too many surprises in the results of the Swachh Survekshan 2019 survey, conducted between January 4th and 31st this year, by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Ambikapur in Chattisgarh, and Mysuru in Karnataka have bagged the top three ranks for the cleanest cities. Madhya Pradesh seems to have cracked the cleanliness conundrum in several pockets. While Indore has done a hat trick, the capital city of Bhopal is acclaimed as the cleanest capital, while another city in MP, Ujjain, also bagged the "cleanest city" award in the 3 lakh…

In mid December 2018, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s performance audit on Solid Waste Management (SWM) in 35 test-checked Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Karnataka was tabled at the state assembly. The report painted a rather sorry picture of the way these civic bodies had been going about the task of solid waste management in their municipalities and called out instances of flawed collection, ineffectual bans on plastic, faulty handling of e-waste and unauthorised slaughter houses among various other gaps. However, that is not where the CAG indictment of the ULBs ended. As per Paragraph 7.2 of…

In the last week of 2018, a hurriedly planned public consultation arranged by the Department of Municipal Administration of Karnataka to frame an updated Solid Waste Management Policy for the state had to be called off, following sharp criticism by activists and pourakarmikas (waste collectors). Protesters objected to the very short notice given for the consultation and the draft being circulated on the day of the meeting. For those wondering why the Department chose to act in such haste, it could be because of the negative observations of the constitutional auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), following…