Civic

At a time when cities across India are rapidly losing green cover, Naya Raipur, the administrative capital of Chhattisgarh, stands out in its endeavour to ensure that the city has adequate greenery. The Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) was established with the aim of creating a greenfield city with parks, botanical garden and a jungle safari. Naya Raipur's greening efforts aim to make it a model city with the target of 27% green cover under the Harihar Chhattisgarh mission. The 25-year development plan for the city envisions a 500-meter wide green belt of an area of 15.09 square kilometers surrounding the…

Nemilichery lake, which once was a lifeline to the farmers in Pallavaram, is slowly being destroyed. With unabated encroachment and illegal dumping of unsegregated waste, the lake is dry and its bed is completely covered with plastic. In order to save the lake for the next generation, volunteers from various organisations and business entities took up the cleaning work on 10 June. “More than 250 volunteers from Federation of Civic and Welfare Associations of Pallavaram, environmental organisation Pasumai Iyakkam and Parvathy Hospital took part in the clean up,” said V Santhanam, a noted civic activist. Years of exploitation by the…

A stretch of the old, dilapidated compound wall of the Corporation School in Thiruveedhi Amman Koil Street of RA Puram grabbed the attention of a residents welfare association recently. To give a new lease of colour to the wall, Thiruveedhi Amman Koil Street Resident Welfare Association (TAKSRA), in association with an organisation called Karam Korpom-SAPS (Stop Abusing Public Spaces) started work two days before World Environment Day. SAPS focuses on preventing the abuse of public spaces by transforming them into beautiful art corners. K L Balasubramanian and M K Ramkumar, active members of TAKSRA, led a group of about 30 volunteers to…

It has been a war between the animal lovers and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in the last few days as the Palike proposed to limit the number of dogs that could be owned in residences. From online petitions to flooding the offices of the Animal Husbandry Department with letters and objections, pet lovers went on an overdrive to stop the administration on their tracks. #NotWithoutMyDog started appearing on social media, while people objected to not letting one person have more than one dog in apartments. The Palike has proposed among other things microchipping for the animals, penalty for not…

Is Chennai ready for  the monsoon? A short spell this week brought much cheer to the people of Chennai, but near immediate reports of water stagnation and potholes on many roads, raises this important question - Is Chennai ready for the monsoon?  A funds crunch has delayed the consturction of storm water drains under the Integrated Storm Water Drain (ISWD) project, by over 12 months, and last week, the state's request from funding was rejected by the Central government. ISWD was mooted by the former CM J Jayalalithaa in 2014 to reduce the impact of floods. Estimated to cost `4,034…

What is a Master Plan? Many of us complain that Chennai has grown ‘unplanned’. Technically that is not true. Chennai has been having various ‘plans’ guiding the expansion of the city since 1957. The First Master Plan for Chennai was published in 1975. Both the transport terminal and  wholesale market from Central Business District were shifted to the current CMBT and Koyambedu Market as a strategy to decongest the Central Business District then. So the master plan matters. The Second Master Plan was published in 2008 - this plan is a guiding document till 2026, another 8 years from now.…

Metro Rail to ensure last mile connectivity For any mass rapid system to succeed, it needs to ensure last mile connectivity, and  Chennai Metro Rail (CMRL) is very aware of this fact. In a few months from now, CMRL  will run share autos along its network, and will soon call for tenders. “We plan to give a contract to the lowest bidding firm, to ply share autos to stations along our elevated and underground stretches. It will most likely be Tata Magic vans that would be operated through our network,” an official said Meanwhile, Metro has seen a dip in…

Citizen Matters in the past has explained how khata can be transferred without paying bribe. This post explains the experience of khata bifurcation/transfer done for a newly built apartment by a few of the residents, after following old examples. March 2017: We initially heard that Khata transfer can’t be done without paying bribe. Many of the fellow owners of the apartments were under the same impression. Initially around 15-18 owners got it done with the help of builder by paying huge amount of bribe. Their khata was done in 2 months only. We, the rest of the owners, thought we…

Hemraj, a youth in his mid twenties, hails from Royapuram, in North Chennai, which is a neglected area in terms of development or infrastructure compared to other parts of the city. From street light malfunction to free flow of sewage to handling simple checks by the police, Hemraj says he had no clue how to resolve all them and whom to approach, until he started volunteering with a civic-action group, Arappor Iyakkam. Citizen movements across the city are growing and are becoming a powerful tool to resolve civic issues and what is heartening is that these citizen movements are now…

Two underground stretches of Metro Rail commence operation Commuters travelling to Chennai Central  from Annanagar can now take the Metro, as can travellers from Saidapet to DMS. Two new stretches of Chennai Metro were inaugurated by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Union Minister Hardeep Singh from Egmore railway station.  A commuter who wants to travel from Chennai Central to Chennai airport or AG-DMS to Chennai airport will have to pay ₹70. The minimum fare is Rs.10/- and the maximum fare has now been revised to Rs. 70 Meanwhile, work is said to be in full swing to complete the…