Civic

Chennai to vote on April 6th, civic body issues directions for model code of conduct The Election Commission of India, on Friday, announced that Tamil Nadu will go for Assembly elections on April 6th and the results will be declared on May 2nd. This time, the election will be conducted throughout the state in a single phase. March 19th is the last date for filing nominations.  In view of the elections, the civic body has issued directions for the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). Commissioner G Prakash stated that any defacement of public property, such as wall paintings, posters, cut-outs…

Cost of riding autos and taxis increases After six years, the base fare for auto rickshaws has been increased from Rs 18 to Rs 21 and for taxis, it has increased to Rs 25 from Rs 22. In 2015, the base fares were increased by Rs 1 each for both autos and taxis, the Indian Express reported. The fare hike, applicable for the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region, will be effective from March 1. For rickshaws, the charge for every additional kilometre over the base fare has been hiked by Rs 2.21 per km to Rs 14.2, while for taxis, the…

Six COVID clusters The number of COVID-19 clusters in the city rose from three to six after the detection of 19 cases -- two of them in educational institutions -- in Yelahanka on Friday. Agragami College, Sambhram Academy of Management Studies and Purva Venezia apartments are the three new clusters. Earlier, the city's third cluster was detected when 26 persons in SJR Watermark Apartment in Ambalipura, Bellandur ward, were found Covid positive. They are all asymptomatic and under home quarantine. The UK, South Africa or Brazil variants of the coronavirus have not been found in the cluster at Manjushree Nursing…

Last year, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo launched her re-election campaign, making the idea of a "15-minute city" one of the key pillars of her manifesto. The concept, which simply refers to an urban neighborhood where all essential needs can be accessed within a 15-minute walk or bike ride, was proposed by Sorbonne professor Carlos Moreno in 2016. It has resurfaced to wide interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been included by the C40 Cities, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and UN-Habitat in order to improve the quality of life in the context of COVID-19 and beyond. The idea has…

Protests over arrest of young climate activist The arrest by Delhi Police of young climate activist Disha Ravi from Bengaluru has created outrage across India. Disha was arrested last Saturday following an FIR filed by the cyber-crime unit of the Delhi police on February 4th against the creators of a "toolkit" for an online campaign supporting the farmers' protest in India. Disha had allegedly edited and shared this document. This toolkit had subsequently been shared on social media by international teen climate activist Greta Thunberg. Disha Ravi graduated recently from the Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, and is one of…

Multi-level car parking lot to be inaugurated by end of February By the end of February, the newly-constructed multi-level car parking lot on Thanikachalam Road in T Nagar will be inaugurated. The parking charges for cars will be Rs 20 for an hour and Rs 5 an hour for motorcycles. Parking will be facilitated through the GCC Smart Parking App. The facility will be linked with the command and control centre in Ripon Building for analysis. Currently, the facility is being tested with the trial of the lifts, using cars of various models and different sizes. While the lot was…

Spurt in COVID-19 cases in Mumbai There's been a rapid increase in the coronavirus cases in Mumbai. On on Wednesday, Mumbai recorded 721 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike since January 7, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). BMC has now issued updated guidelines. See them below: https://twitter.com/mybmc/status/1362426766527066113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1362426766527066113%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.livemint.com%2Fnews%2Findia%2Fnew-curbs-in-mumbai-amid-surge-in-covid-19-cases-check-new-rules-here-11613694432059.html Mumbai's air quality is worsening Factories across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) burn two million tonnes coal every year, a new study by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based non-profit, found. The study identified the Trans-Thane Creek (TTC), Taloja, Ambernath and Dombivali, which covers about 70 per cent…

Death by air pollution A Greenpeace Southeast Asia report on Thursday estimated that Bengaluru recorded 12,000 avoidable deaths due to PM 2.5 air pollution in 2020. The city fared better than Delhi and Mumbai, but worse than Chennai, Hyderabad, and Lucknow. The ‘Cost Estimator’ online tool estimated the real-time health impact and economic cost from fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), using real-time ground-level PM 2.5 measurements collated in IQAir’s database. Apart from waste burning, construction, industries, and DG sets, the fossil-fuelled transport sector was the key emission source. Polluted air increases the likelihood of deaths owing to cancer and stroke,…

Vidya Jonnagada, a resident of Tarnaka escaped the hardships of many of her neigbours who were stuck in their homes and flats without power, water and connectivity for several days due to the flood havoc caused by the incessant rains in October. “We had one advantage,” said Vidya. “We had set up a solar-powered backup for our entire complex, which proved a life-saver".  Tilak S. Gajendran, a resident of Nizampet too said the solar power backup enabled him to see through those rainy days even though the solar panels wasn’t very effective. “We were fortunate to have some power during…

On 29 September, 2009, the Supreme Court ordered that the authorised construction of any religious structure should not be allowed in streets, parks of other public places. The order applied to every state in India. In case of structures built before the date of the court order, state governments were to make decisions on a case-by-case basis. Yet in Bengaluru, we still see religious structures popping up on public land. This was because the Karnataka government or BBMP took hardly any action to implement the SC order - structures that came up since September 2009 were not demolished, and no…