Civic

With house rent of Rs 6,000 overdue and two children on the verge of dropping out from school due to her inability to arrange for fees, single mother R Sharmila is at the end of her tether. She is one of the hundreds of conservancy workers who were terminated by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), without any prior notice, earlier this year. In January, the civic body suspended the contract of 545 conservancy workers after the privatisation of 11 of the 15 zones in Chennai. Although they have been jobless for over six months now, the fired conservancy workers turn…

12 Indian coastal cities will be submerged by the end of the century: IPCC A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted that 12 Indian coastal cities, Kandla, Okha, Bhavnagar, Mumbai, Mormugao, Mangalore, Cochin, Paradip, Khidirpur, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, and Tuticorin, could be under almost three feet of water by the end of this century. Asia has been highlighted as a major factor driving such calamitous change. The report notes that sea levels around Asia have been increasing at a faster rate than the average global rate. Moreover, the report says that by 2050 extreme sea-level events…

E-Pass facility launched for Mumbai's trains Maharashtra government launched an online e-pass facility on August 12 to enable fully vaccinated people to travel in suburban trains in Mumbai from Independence Day onwards. Officials said that the state's Relief and Rehabilitation Department had developed a web link to provide e-passes to employees and essential workers. Representative Image The same link will now make e-passes available to fully vaccinated citizens who have completed 14 days after their second dose, for Mumbai suburban railway travel. The digital process will not be a replacement for the offline ticketing system which will continue to be…

Bengaluru children test COVID positive The first 10 days of August saw 499 children in Bengaluru testing positive for COVID. A health bulletin reported that 88 children between 0 to 9 years and 305 children between 10 to 19 years tested positive. The number might shoot up to more than three times in the next few weeks, said sources in the health department. They have also advised parents to vaccinate themselves and to keep children away from crowded places. However, BBMP officials denied there was a steep rise in fresh cases among children. They said most children who tested positive…

Two new COVID clusters identified in Chennai Two new clusters recording over 20 COVID cases have been identified in Chennai. On August 2nd, a religious gathering near Kilpauk turned out to be the first cluster that led to around 20 infections out of 275 samples.  An apartment complex in Sholinganallur has emerged as the second major cluster where 23 out of 398 samples tested positive. It was identified that the security personnel at the apartment were unvaccinated. A patient being admitted at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. Pic: Laasya Shekhar According to the civic body, there were three index…

India administers more than 50 cr doses of COVID-19 vaccine On August 6th, 203 days after the vaccination drive was launched on January 15th, India administered a total of over 50 cr doses of vaccine. The Union health ministry further informed that 172 million people in the18-44 have received the first dose. Five states, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, have administered ovr 10 million jabs so far. As of now, India has approved four vaccines---Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik and Moderna’s vaccine.   Source: Hindustan Times Read more: COVID vaccination for children: What experts are saying No action against…

78.2% seropositivity rate in Chennai The fourth round of serosurveys revealed that the city has an overall seroprevalence rate of 78.2%. Conducted by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), the Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE) and the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT), 7000 samples were collected from 204 streets in 51 wards spread across all zones.  The results showed that Tondiarpet had the highest seroprevalence of 83.3% and Madhavaram the lowest of 72.5% of the 15 zones in Chennai. Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi stated that vaccination coverage would be increased in zones like…

Evicted GTB Nagar residents yet to be relocated Nearly 1,200 families who were evicted from their houses in Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Nagar last year have yet to see the redevelopment plan promised to them commence. While the BMC has been declaring houses in the area unsafe for the past two decades, residents were forced to finally leave last year amidst a raging pandemic. One of the residents told Mid-Day that for the past nine months, she and other women "begged BMC officials to make alternate arrangements for the poor families, many of whom are of taxi drivers." The assistant commissioner of…

Prohibitory orders till August 16th Bengaluru City police has imposed prohibitory orders, based on guidelines from the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority. The order, issued to contain the spread of COVID, prohibits the assembly of more than four people in public places. Bus stands, Metro stations, railway stations and airports are exempted. The curfew will be in place till 6 am on August 16. Bengaluru Police has invoked Section 144 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Those violating the orders will be punished under the Disaster Management Act and Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act. On Thursday, 414 COVID-positive cases…

Cycles4change challenge: Bengaluru gets most cycle-friendly city tag Bengaluru won the top spot in the all-India Cycle4Change campaign by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that finally ranked 11 cities. These cities were ranked for being pioneer cities and will get a grant of Rs 1 crore for boosting cycling infrastructure. Bengaluru was declared the most cycle-friendly city in the country out of the 107 cities that participated in the competition. Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Kohima, Nagpur, New Town Kolkata, Pimpri Chinchwad, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and Warangal are the cities in the top 11. The challenge aims to transform cities…