Civic

Mumbai starts partial lockdown According to joint guidelines produced by the BMC and Mumbai Police, a weekend shutdown and strict night curfew beginning at 8 PM will be followed for public spaces. With Section 144 now imposed on the city, no more than 5 people are allowed to crowd public spaces and gardens from 7 AM to 8 PM on weekdays while the weekends will see a total shutdown except for essential services. Home delivery of essential items will be allowed 24x7. Beaches will remain completely closed until April 30th. Public transport will continue at full capacity except for autos…

Bus strike continues, trainee staff fired Karnataka road transport corporation employees have announced that their strike will continue until the government hikes their salaries as per the 6th Pay Commission, and offers them the same benefits as government employees. The government said it has agreed to eight out of nine of the workers' demands, and was considering a salary hike of 8%. On Thursday, BMTC fired 96 trainees for boycotting work. Citizens dependent on BMTC fleet turned to private buses, autos and taxis to commute to work. Some passengers at Majestic and Mysuru Satellite bus stands accused private operators of…

Respected Sir,We, civil society organisations and activists from Maharashtra, who are engaged in human rights work with different communities and have also been extensively involved in relief work and advocacy throughout the pandemic and consequent lockdown, address this letter to you to put forth some of our pressing concerns regarding the new restrictions announced in light of increasing number of COVID cases in the state of Maharashtra. We also request for a personal meeting with you to discuss our below suggestions and explore possibilities of civil society collaborations through constructive engagement and consultation, with an aim to create an effective…

Bengaluru has a planning history spanning more than fifty years. The first step towards planning for development of Bengaluru City was initiated with the Outline Development Plan prepared by the Bangalore Development Committee in 1952.  The city’s planning got statutory backing in 1961 when the Karnataka Town And Country Planning (KTCP) Act, 1961 was enacted.  The history of planned development in Bengaluru is seen in the timeline below. The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is entrusted with the task of preparing a Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) as per the KTCP Act. Throughout Bengaluru city's planning history, thought to its future industrialisation,…

COVID cases reach alarming highs; Maharashtra announces night curfew and weekend lockdown The daily COVID case count in the country has been a steep rising curve, with the Sunday (April 4th) tally crossing a lakh for the first time and beating the previous high of 97,894 recorded in September last year. This was also when Mumbai reported the highest single-day spike in cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with a 24-hour tally of 11,163 cases reported. 10 states have contributed to more than 91% of the cases and deaths due to COVID. At a high level meeting chaired by…

Chennai witnesses uptick in COVID cases, more beds arranged Chennai recorded 1,290 fresh COVID-19 cases on April 3rd. There were 730 recoveries, 7 deaths and 7,713 persons are currently undergoing treatment.  In the wake of increasing COVID infections, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has re-initiated containment measures in 378 streets. A street or house with three or more index cases, or with two or more affected families, are classified as containment zones. This time, the containment restriction is defined at the house-level unlike in the past, when it was imposed at the street-level.  So far, 4,163 houses have been identified…

My first memories of Hyderabad are the long evening walks watching the sunset along Necklace Road, as a young architecture student welcoming the millenium new year. Now twenty years later, the city has been my home for almost three years, and those memories remain preserved even as the city has grown rapidly, not just in size but aspirations too.  Hyderabad Metropolitan area has been consistently ranked as one of the most liveable cities in India with The Mercer Quality of Living Rating 2019 ranking Hyderabad and Pune as the top cities in India, making it one of the emerging investment…

Hardik Joshi, Unsplash,Com Fire results in the death of 11 COVID-19 patients On March 25th, a fire rapidly spread in Dreams Mall Sunrise Hospital resulting in the death of 11 COVID-19 patients. Relatives of the deceased ran around the city for almost 10 hours searching for their bodies. Dreams Mall had been declared fit for housing a make-shift COVID hospital days before an audit last May claimed that fire-fighting systems of the building are non-functional. Despite this audit, Mumbai’s Fire Brigade granted a fire safety compliance report for the mall on July 22, 2020. Draft rules published in 2009 would…

Cases surge; Govt imposes restrictions Over 470 children below 10 have been infected with COVID-19, since the beginning of this month. A total of 244 boys and 228 girls have been infected from March 1 to 26. The cases among children were limited to eight to nine daily during the early days of this month but they steadily rose to 46 on March 26. The cases are different from the trends seen last year, as the state reported most new cases among people aged 40 or less. Contrary to the advice from the Technical Advisory Committee, the government ruled out…

Vaccine for people above 45 from 1st April As the country faces the second wave of COVID-19 infection, the government has decided to boost the pace of vaccination in the country. The Central government has decided to widen the beneficiary base by allowing people above 45 years (with or without comorbidity) of age to take the COVID vaccine from 1st April onwards. Nationally, the vaccination drive was started on 16th January with healthcare and frontline workers. So far, more than 5.5 crore vaccination shots have been administered. In a separate development, the government has increased the time between the first and…