Civic

Our desire is to make a difference to the politics of the state by actively engaging in the perspective building of political manifestos in the coming elections of the state and later aim at working with the state and its agencies in shaping the governance structures. We intend to have quarterly, department-wise interactions with the elected government to follow-up on the promises made by the winning party and the commitments made on our manifesto.   The recommendations that have been raised have been taken from critically viewing the development of the state over the last five years as well as…

Action inside and outside Chepauk; CSK team and IPL fans disappointed with turn of things On an otherwise normal day, with the Chennai Super Kings staging a comeback, the city of Chennai would be bleeding yellow. But the day for which all cricket fanatics in the city had been waiting for, turned into an ugly battle ground with fringe groups staging demonstrations and calling for cancellation of the match. High drama was witnessed as some of the protestors shouting slogans for cancellation of the match in support of the Cauvery Management Board broke barricades. To control the situation, the police…

Public parks play a key role in recreation and health of citizens. For children growing up in fast developing, concretised urbanscapes, time spent in parks is their only respite from walls -- in their houses and schools and tuitions. It is a good thing for citizens, therefore, that renovation of parks gets a mention in almost all annual budgets of the Chennai Corporation. However, a visit to some of the public parks in the city will break your heart. On the ground, these parks are anything but child friendly, with most of the play equipment and accessories to engage children…

Supreme Court slams Delhi authorities over lapses in sealing case The top court of the country told civic authorities and the Delhi government that they might have to walk the Tughlaq way and shift capital if they continued to fail to prevent unauthorised constructions. SC made it clear that commercial establishments like restaurants and big showrooms cannot continue in residential areas in violation of the law as the authorities cannot put the lives of citizens of Delhi in danger. “Unauthorised constructions have a direct relation with rising pollution. Delhiites suffer from problems such as pollution, parking and lack of green…

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…