Civic

A three-hour-long fire that raged at the landfill at Kodungaiyur on Monday morning was extinguished by firefighters and Chennai Corporation workers. Thick smoke rising from the fire hung over the area for a few more hours, as a reminder of the regular peeve of residents here. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) seemed almost prepared to handle the emergency, since fires are hardly uncommon here. The GCC and the fire department employed 12 Sintex tankers of 2000 litre capacity each and two tankers of 12,000 litre capacity to douse the blaze. “Formation of Methane gas from the landfill would have caused the…

Are we compromising on the coastline? The draft plan proposed by the Tamil Nadu Government on the coastal management has drawn much criticism from environmentalists and fishermen. What irks environmentalists and citizens particularly is the government’s apathy and indifference in presenting an incomplete draft plan and then inviting a public hearing on the same. Not only has the plan not followed the guidelines and preparation of CZMPs, as per Annexure-1 of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2011, hazard mapping seems to have also been compromised. Besides the blatant violations, a large area of coastline along the ECR  has been changed…

On March 18, 2017 I visited a water body in GKM Colony located right next to the K5 Police Station (Peravallur), Jawahar Nagar in response to a request from Arappor Iyakkam to conduct an audit on the city’s water bodies. There were some workers who were involved in spraying chemicals and were also at the same time removing the floating garbage from this particular pond, which is called the Vannankuttai. A storm water drain (SWD) was found to be discharging untreated sewage directly into the Vannankuttai through a circular pipe, as you will see in the following image: Summer was…

On the evening of Saturday, March 31st, the residents of Besant Nagar were taken aback when large stretches of perfectly laid pavements, between Theosophical Society and Olcott School, interspersed with young trees protected by tree guards, were dug up and uprooted by a crew from the Greater Chennai Corporation. When they asked what the work was about, and who had ordered it, they were told that the Bus Route Roads (BRR) department of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), had a plan to widen the pavements and provide bicycle lanes. But why break perfectly good stretches when there are so many…

14 ponds in Manali to be restored in the first phase under the Smart City Mission Chennai Corporation will work on restoring 14 ponds in Manali, in the first phase of the pan city initiative under the Smart City Mission.  Chennai has around 280 water bodies of which 145 lakes and ponds come under the Corporation jurisdiction.  The Chennai Corporation has planned to revive all these water bodies in a phased manner. "According to the Corporation officials, it has been proposed to use permeable pavement methods like sand gravel mix as part of the restoration work. It has also been…

March 23, 2015; the venue: Chennai Corporation Council. While passing the budget of his last term in office, 'Saidai' Duraisamy, then Mayor of Chennai remarked, “Of the 419 announcements made by the AIADMK-led Corporation so far,  218 have been implemented. We will implement the remaining 165 this year.” This was at the Corporation Council meet on the budget. He also compared the percentage of announcements that were implemented in the earlier regime vs his current regime and was proud that he had  done better by a margin of 15%. In that budget debate, 103 of the 200 councillors participated. The opposition…

Namma Bengaluru Foundation hosted its flagship initiative – ‘the 9th Namma Bengaluru Awards’ (NBA) in Bengaluru today. The awards, which aims to honour the ‘real heroes’ of Bengaluru, recognized 6 extraordinary Bengalureans for their unparalleled contribution towards making the city better. Since 2009, the jury members which comprises of leading Bengalureans from all walks of life, select awardees in fair and transparent manner. The winner’s names are kept confidential and is revealed only on the day of the event. In the past, IAS, IPS, IFS and officials in all levels of administration have been honoured in Government Official of the…

My article titled ‘Bengaluru needs its green cover to remain liveable’, led to questions about what can be done. A mission for re-greening Bengaluru is the need of the hour - a time-bound exercise with goals to be achieved. For example the goal could be to increase tree cover in Bengaluru by 20% in the next five years. Step 1: Tree census For starters, the government, that is the municipal administration - the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) must undertake a tree census to establish a baseline. Trees must be mapped employing qualified experts backed by technology such as a…

Freedom Pedals initiative by Anvaya Foundation started three years back when we met a girl in Kaiwara temple. She was playing with an old rusted cycle which didn't have bell, brake and not even a seat. After some thought, we started collecting old cycles across Bengaluru and distributed them to government school students in village limits, after repairing them and giving them a facelift. First year we started with four cycles. Last year, we could donate 38 cycles. This year, in total we donated 220 cycles so far, including 120+ cycles donated last week in Seegehalli Government School. Our convenors…

A decade old civic battle being fought by residents of Chitlapakkam has reached a positive conclusion. In what could bring relief to many citizens suffering shoddy and hastily laid roads in cities, the Madras High Court on March 9th directed the Chitlapakkam Town Panchayat to mandate milling in the road relaying procedure. The direction would be applicable to the entire state of Tamil Nadu, including the Greater Chennai Corporation. Paving the way The court ruling came in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Madras High Court last week by R Balachandar, a cab driver from Chitlapakkam. The litigant…