Civic

Fuel stickers for Delhi vehicles The Supreme Court-appointed Environmental Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority has mandated fuel stickers for all vehicles plying in the national capital. The order covers all four-wheelers — old and new; private and commercial; cars, trucks and buses. The vehicles must have stickers that indicate what type of fuel is used by them. All vehicles must comply with the order by using stickers before October 2019. Petrol and CNG vehicles are indicated by light-blue stickers on their windscreens, diesel vehicles must use orange stickers, and electric and hybrid vehicles must use green stickers. 76000 vehicles currently…

88 tonnes of banned plastic seized in January It has been one month since the implementation of plastic ban in the state and the city has had mixed response from various quarters. Chennai corporation has seized 88 tonnes of banned plastic in the city during the last 31 days. According to the data compiled by the civic body, the largest quantity of banned plastics has been seized from outlets in Kodambakkam zone, while the lowest were in Madhavaram zone. It has also been reported that many retailers have gone back to use of banned items, especially bags and packaging material.…

Finally, it looks like the Chennai Metro is ready to roll out services across its full length of 45.1 km in Phase I, nine years after it was approved by the Centre. As one of the biggest urban infrastructure projects of Chennai, costing upwards of $2.5 billion, it upgrades the city’s profile globally, although it is nowhere near the emerging international paradigm of Mobility as a Service (MaaS). In fact, it is a pretty scattered set of options in Tamil Nadu’s capital, with a mix of regulated systems for low quality government-run buses, suburban trains operated by the Central government, the Metro…

In the last four years, promises to build hostels exclusively for north-eastern students across cities in the north and south have drawn mixed reactions. Some hail the move as an assurance of "safety," while critics slam it as "divisive". Meanwhile, amid divergent reactions, the first hostel built for female students from the north-eastern states, under the scheme mooted by the NDA government at the centre, is said to have been completed, and will be inaugurated in Bengaluru's Jnana Bharathi campus "soon." This was disclosed in a recent announcement by Dr Jitendra Singh, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER). The hostel,…

About 5000 students from 115 private and government schools across the city will either visit traffic police stations or invite the traffic police to their schools through February, to celebrate and express gratitude towards them. CMCA’s 14th Traffic Police Day, the flag-off event of a month-long celebration of the city’s traffic police by children, was held at the Traffic Management Centre on January 28th. P Harishekaran, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), traffic constables, and school students were present. CMCA’s Traffic Police Day is designed to foster positive interactions between the traffic police and children. The idea is to introduce children…

Translated by Sandhya Raju "பல மாதங்களாக தனிமையில் வாடினேன். என் குடும்பத்தினரிடம் என்னால் மனம் விட்டு பேச முடியவில்லை. தற்கொலை எண்ணத்தை தூண்டக்கூடிய அளவில் கல்லூரி படிப்பு ரொம்பவே அழுத்தம் கொடுத்தது" என்கிறார் பிரபல கல்லூரியில் இறுதி ஆண்டு எஞ்சினீயரிங் பயிலும் ராம். வாழ்க்கையின் இக்கட்டான முடிவை எடுக்கும் முன், ஆன்லைனில் உதவி கிட்டுமா என்று தேடினார். "என்ன தேடுகிறேன் என்று தெரியாமல் என் பிரச்சனையை முன்வைத்து வலைதளத்தில் தேட ஆரம்பித்த பொழுது தற்கொலை தடுப்பு ஹெல்ப்லைன் நம்பர் கிடைத்தது. சும்மா முயற்சிக்கலாம் என்ற எண்ணத்தில் எந்த வித எதிர்ப்பார்ப்பும் இன்றி தொடர்பு கொண்டேன், ஆனால் அந்த முயற்சி என் வாழ்க்கையை மாற்றி அமைத்தது" என்கிறார். WHO ஆய்வின் படி இந்தியாவின் சராசரியை விட தமிழ்நாட்டில் தற்கொலை செய்வோரின் எண்ணிக்கைமூன்று மடங்கு அதிகம்.   National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) படி.2015 ஆண்டில், 14,602 தற்கொலைகள் தமிழ்நாட்டில் நடந்துள்ளன. நாட்டிலேயே…

A private car should ideally carry four to five people. But a recent survey in Udyog Vihar Industrial Area in Gurugram showed that it carries only 1.6 persons on average. The survey was conducted by the IT company Nagarro among over 2600 of its own employees. Among the survey respondents, 42 percent were using private cars to come to office, contributing to the infamous congestion in the city. The majority of them did not carpool. A quarter of the car users sometimes parked their cars on the street next to office, which could also congest the road. Another 19 percent…

In an attempt to leverage technology for civic responsibility, international school Chettinad Sarvalokaa Education and not-for-profit organisation, Reap Benefit are conducting a two-day event called Sarvalokaa Hackathon 2019. It is an initiative that will bring together young people from various spheres on one platform to solve local, civic and environment issues in their neighbourhoods. The Hackathon will take place on February 1 and 2, 2019 at Chettinad Sarvalokaa Education, inside the Chettinad Health City Campus, Rajiv Gandhi Salai, Old Mamallapuram Road, Kelambakkam. The hackathon will comprise of workshops on rapid prototyping, design thinking, electronics and coding by some of the…

Alighting at the BMTC bus stop at Puttenahalli, and walking a few metres ahead, one can see a huge expanse of land – the Yelahanka Puttenahalli lake. The lake is completely dry, and one can't miss three mounds of what were once islands. An open channel runs along the side, carrying sewage. One can see construction work happening - there is a complex concrete structure which looks like a huge tank with several partitions. "Since the 1980s till the early 2000s, I used to regularly pass by this lake and it was a beautiful sight," says Dr K S Sangunni, a…

Swine flu spikes in Delhi The capital recorded 99 fresh cases of swine flu in the last week to take the number of cases registered to 267 so far in January. The total number of cases registered all of last year stood at 205. Two deaths have also been reported at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital due to the illness that has gripped Delhi. The flu has swept parts of North India with Rajasthan registering the highest number of cases so far. The Delhi government issued an advisory for the general public with dos and don'ts to protect themselves from…