Civic

Lokayukta appointment soon Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai confirmed that the process of appointing the new Lokayukta is in the final stages. Bommai's confirmation comes a day after the High Court, during a hearing, indicated that the appointment process had begun. The panel formed to choose the Lokayukta comprises Bommai, High Court Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Chairman of the Legislative Council, and opposition leaders in both Houses. The position of Lokayukta has been vacant since January. Source: The Indian Express Idgah Maidan row The row over the ownership of the Chamarajpet Idgah Maidan has heated…

Flood mitigation works in Chennai to conclude by September The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has set a deadline of September 30 to conclude all stormwater drain works in the city. The civic body aims to finish construction and repair works before the onset of the northeast monsoon. A circular on the matter has been issued by Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi. The circular called for the completion of the work per set norms.  The instructions from the civic body also stated that the assistant executive engineer, executive engineer and assistant engineer will be held responsible for any stagnation of water in…

On May 27th, Zaveri Bazaar in South Mumbai experienced a power cut that lasted almost 38 hours, causing chaos in the market on a hot summer day. Lights went out at 7 pm and returned on May 29th early morning at 4 am. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) attributed this power cut to a faulty underground line.  India generates a total of 2.75 lakh megawatts of electricity every day, and the current per capita electricity requirement in Mumbai is about 1000 kilowatt. Growing power needs become worrisome when we’re facing a climate crisis head on, from the extreme heat to…

Huge spike in COVID cases, testing to be ramped in Mumbai On June 3rd, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced that the positivity rate in Mumbai for COVID cases touched six per cent. "Daily new cases have tremendously increased in Mumbai, with monsoon around the corner, we will now see a rapid rise in symptomatic cases," the civic body said. Vaccination for ages 12-18 and administration of the booster dose has been pushed aggressively, as the BMC predicts a rise in symptomatic cases with the monsoons just around the corner. On June 2nd, the city recorded 506 COVID cases, the…

BBMP ward delimitation report to be out in a week BBMP has submitted the ward delimitation report to the State's Urban Development Department. With delimitation, the number of wards in BBMP has been increased from 198 to 243. The report, which specifies the boundaries of the new wards, will be made public in a week. There are now more wards in the Assembly Constituencies in outer areas. Constituencies that have got the most number of wards are Bengaluru South (up from five to 13 wards), Bommanahalli (from six to 14), Byatarayanapura (from four to 11), RR Nagar (from four to…

Chennai suburbs to see basic street rate reduction The Greater Chennai Corporation council passed a resolution to reduce the basic street rate (BSR) component of property tax calculation for some suburban areas of Chennai. The BSR component will now be equal to or less than that of the core areas. Previously, the BSR component of the suburban areas was higher than some of the core areas, prompting protests by residents.  Residents of Alandur, Valsaravakkam, Ambattur, Thiruvottiyur and Madhavaram saw high BSR after the latest round of property tax revision whereby the rates were set higher than Nungambakkam and T Nagar.…

Ormes Road resident Dr Muralidharan was in for a rude shock when he tried to leave his home to attend to a medical emergency. The area outside his home had been dug up by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, leaving him no way to get his vehicle out quickly. Road digging in the locality that lasted for weeks had resulted in roads not being repaired and relaid. This has been the reality of many residents across Chennai as works by various agencies for stormwater drains, underground cables, water and sewage pipelines are being laid, relaid or repaired.  Road digging issues…

COVID cases rise in Mumbai Concerns over rising COVID cases in the state were raised at the cabinet meeting on May 26th. On May 25th, the number of positive cases in the state was at 2,175, from 618 cases on April 15th. A large portion of the rise is due to Mumbai, exactly 67.27%. Despite lower numbers than last year, and the city removing the mask mandate in April, the government is now urging citizens to maintain masking.  "We removed the restriction of wearing masks on April 2 and within a span of 15 days the cases have gone up. If cases continue…

BBMP gives more powers to zonal commissioners The BBMP on Wednesday issued a notification, signed by Chief Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath, delegating more administrative and financial powers to its zonal commissioners. Zonal Commissioners had been appointed to BBMP's eight zones in April 2021 for better coordination during the pandemic. But they have had little control over administrative and financial matters. The departments of revenue, health, town planning, solid waste management, education, road infrastructure, horticulture, forest, animal husbandry and projects will be headed by their respective chiefs. But all other departments will henceforth be decentralised and will work under the zones. Housing…

Pillion riders fined for not wearing helmet in Chennai Around 2000 pillion riders were fined by the Chennai Traffic Police for failure to wear helmets. The Police issues a statement mandating helmets for pillions starting Monday, May 23. The east zone saw the highest number of bookings at 844. The city traffic police aim to continue checks until 100% compliance of pillion riders wearing helmets is achieved. Those without helmets were fined Rs 100 and issued challans.  The high number of fatalities from road accidents among pillion riders has been a key factor in the stringent implementation of this rule.…