Civic

PM and CMs might get vaccinated in second round As per some media reports, PM and CMs might get vaccinated in the second round of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in the country. The first phase was launched on January 16th, giving priority to health and other frontline workers. Under the second phase, people above the age of 50 and with comorbidities will be part of the vaccination program.  So far, the response by states has been underwhelming. States like Punjab (28%) and Tamil Nadu (35%) recorded a low rate of coverage till 20th January. On the contrary, the states…

Health workers hold protests Even as the city continues its battle against the Coronavirus outbreak, several health workers held a protest at the Directorate of Medical Services seeking permanent employment. The Tamil Nadu government appointed 3,000 health workers at a consolidated salary with promise of permanent employee status a few years after service. The State Health Minister had promised in 2019 that workers who completed five years of service would be made permanent. One year since the announcement was made, there has been no action on the promise, resulting in protests by the workers. Source: The Hindu Waste water reclamation…

Vaccination slower than planned The COVID-19 vaccination drive was halted or slowed down in several city hospitals on Wednesday due to glitches in the Co-WIN app. Reports from the Jayanagar General Hospital indicated that vaccination could not take place on Tuesday and Wednesday as the portal did not permit the entry of names. Meanwhile, it was reported that the Bowring and Lady Curzon Medical College and Research Institute did not get the list of healthcare workers to be vaccinated from the State war room. There has been a heavy load on the server as all hospitals are entering data simultaneously.…

Elections, our festival of democracy, are around the corner in Tamil Nadu. A good indicator of election season of late has been the flurry of activity by the civic body across the city. Roads that citizens have complained about for years with no response get a facelift, potholes are fixed, pavements are laid and any and all grievance is addressed with a swiftness that makes one wish election season lasted longer.  Several infrastructure development projects which had been put on the back burner over the past five years will now be taken up on a war footing and completed in…

When we were moving to Mumbai, one of the major relocation tasks was finding a suitable house to live in. Suitable as in proximity to children’s school and husband’s office, size, furnishing, rent, amenities, and the like… things people look for while choosing a house. We knew a few people who were already living in the area and they indicated that the most efficient way of going about this would be to approach one (or more) of the many real estate agents who had set up shop for people like us (and for owners who had bought the houses but…

Climbing the tower at Anna Nagar Park is easily one of the most exciting childhood memories for E Sendil Kumar to this day. For Sendil, Managing Director of Nova Lifespace Private Limited who still resides in Anna Nagar, the mesmerising view of the entire area from the 12-storied tower was a much better spectacle and brought greater thrill than all those television shows during his formative years. The Anna Nagar Tower Park was a quick and refreshing getaway from the city's hustle and bustle for many residents. With kids on Tennikoit rings, elders discussing politics, friends in a huddle and couples…

Few civic issues bring citizens together like Solid Waste Management (SWM). An important component of neighbourhood cleanliness and sanitation, SWM has formed the core of citizen-government partnership in Mumbai.  Repeated governments have tried to stir up citizen participation through SWM. In 1997, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) formalised the creation of citizen groups called Advanced Locality Management (ALM) in an attempt to involve citizens in neighbourhood cleanliness.  Most recently, Swachh Survekshan, part of the Swachh Bharat Mission, ranks cities across the country in categories of cleanliness and sanitation on four parameters, one of which is citizen feedback. The SBM guidelines…

GCC sacks temporary workers amid pandemic Around 500 temporary sanitary workers deployed for COVID-19 duty were sacked by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) last week. The termination of jobs comes after the civic body’s decision to outsource waste management in 11 of the 15 zones in Chennai. Due to the outsourcing, all the permanent sanitary workers and National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) workers were transferred to Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and Anna Nagar zones, zones managed by the Corporation. Of this, the excess staff have been made redundant. There is an ongoing case on the issue at the Madras…

COVID vaccination underway Six health facilities in the city are primed for the COVID vaccination programme, inaugurated nation-wide by the Prime Minister today (January 16). The Victoria Hospital campus has 11 vaccination sites, St John’s Hospital nine, KC General Hospital three and CV Raman Hospital one. The other two are Jayanagar General Hospital and Mallasandra primary health centre. In all, there are 243 centres across the State where the initial phase of vaccinating healthcare workers will be carried out over a week. The chosen hospitals have also readied a separate ward to observe and treat severe allergic reactions, if any,…

India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive begins India is all set to initialize its much awaited vaccine drive on 16th January 2021 across 3,000 sites. Each site will vaccinate 100 people a day. The government plans to increase the number of vaccination sites to 5,000 in the coming days. As per the government data, around 3 lakh people will be provided vaccination shots during phase I of the drive. Batches of Covishield (Serum Institute of India) and Covaxin (Bharat Biotech)  have been delivered to 12 cities in India.  As of 12th January 2021, 54.72 lakh doses of the two vaccines reached designated…