Civic

Cases of tuberculosis decline, but vigilance high On March 25th, an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that Mumbai reported 60,000 cases of tuberculosis (TB) in 2021, compared to over 43,000 in 2020. But, despite these numbers, there seems to be a marginal decline in cases of TB since before the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, when cases were at 60,440. The BMC was vigilant of TB cases during the pandemic since those suffering could have been overlooked despite their increased vulnerability to the virus. Services for TB patients were kept running through the pandemic years, and officials…

Bandh against hijab order partial, peaceful Several parts of the city were deserted on Thursday in response to the bandh called by Muslim groups to protest the Karnataka High Court’s ruling on hijab. Establishments owned by Muslims on Commercial Street, Shivajinagar, Yarab Nagar near Banashankari, Mosque road, JC Nagar, Central Business District (CBD) and Chamarajpet were closed and people’s movement was low. Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant oversaw security arrangements in Kadugondanahalli, DJ Halli, JC Nagar and RT Nagar police station limits. The bandh passed off peacefully. Before the High Court pronounced its verdict on Tuesday morning, prohibitory orders under Section 144 of…

New Stormwater drains worth 28 crores to come up in parts of the city The tenders for constructing new storm water drains (SWDs) in Chennai have been floated under the Singara Chennai 2.0 funding and by the Greater Chennai Corporation. These drains are to be constructed in central areas of the city such as Nungambakkam, Virugambakkam, T Nagar, Gopalapuram. Prior to this, tenders for SWD projects in Kodambakkam, Teynampet, Adyar and Santhome were floated by the GCC. The SWM projects in the central areas will be constructed in Radhakrishnan Salai, Kannadasan Street, Virugambakkam Street, Kaliamman Street and Reddy Street.  All…

COVID hospitalisations at an all-time low For the first time since the first wave of COVID hit the country in April 2020, hospitalisations due to the virus dropped to below 100 in Mumbai between March 14th and 19th. According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), only one person was hospitalised on March 18th, taking the total count to just 74, of which seven were critical. “Even when the first and second waves were waning, the city’s daily caseload did not drop to what we are seeing now. Hospitalisations, therefore, were also on the higher side,” said additional commissioner Suresh Kakani.…

The lack of enough accessible public toilets has long been an issue in Chennai. Lessons from the pandemic and the emphasis on hygiene has made clean toilets all the more important for the city’s many residents. Recycle Bin, an NGO, has multiple ideas to make Chennai’s public toilets accessible and clean, in addition to a larger toilet masterplan at the policy level. Citizen Matters spoke to Ganga Dileep C, Founder-CEO and Principal Architect and Urban Designer at Recycle Bin on the various programmes in place and the possible roadmap for change for Chennai public toilets.  What does Recycle Bin do?…

BMTC slips to second rank in fleet strength The BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) which held the top spot for running the country's largest bus fleet for several years, has lost it to the DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation). DTC's fleet strength is now 7,001, whereas BMTC's is 6,911. BMTC had recently inducted 90 e-buses, of which 60 are not operational due to the delay in setting up charging infrastructure. A senior BMTC official said that 300 non-AC e-buses will be inducted under lease model by October, and 900 aged buses will be scrapped in a phased manner. The state government's…

Temperatures on the rise due to urban sprawl The urban and peri-urban parts of Chennai Metropolitan Area are affected by rise in temperatures and increasingly experiencing heat island effects as a result of urban sprawl. The built-up area in the CMA stands at 48.7%, according to a case study by the Centre for Water Resources, Anna University. The vegetation cover has shrunk to only 6.7% of the area under study and stands at 7,288 hectares as of 2017. The reduction of vegetation cover is evident as the same stood at 14.9% in 1988. Water bodies have also shrunk to cover…

BMC elections likely to be held in October According to sources, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections for 2022 are likely to be pushed to October. This is due to the temporary halt in judicial proceedings for the reservation of Other Backward Castes (OBC) seats in the local elections. The state government passed a resolution in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly that local body elections will not take place without OBC reservation. In a protest conducted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on March 9th, BJP leader Chandrakant Patil told the media that BMC elections may be postponed by 6 months.…

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election is an election of members who govern Greater Mumbai. The BMC is Asia's largest municipal corporation and elections for its members are scheduled to be held in April 2022. The current tenure of the sitting corporators came to an end in February 2022, and on March 8th, current municipal commissioner Iqbal Chahal was appointed as administrator of the city, in the backdrop of delayed civic polls. A study conducted by the non-profit organisation Praja has revealed that 90% of Mumbai’s corporators have performed poorly based on criteria set by the organisation, with only two corporators scoring “A”. The…

A study by the Chennai-based NGO Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC) was conducted in five resettlement colonies — Perumbakkam, Semmenchery, Gudapakkam, Navalur and All India Radio (AIR) Site, was carried out with an objective of examining and understanding the issues faced by those resettled families. The findings show that there is an urgent need for the government to intervene as pointed out by Vanessa Peter, Founder of IRCDUC who had said that the study highlights the key issues that have to be looked into while framing the policy. Some of these had already been flagged…