Governance

On Friday, March 18th, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister, Palanivel Thiaga Rajan presented the budget in Assembly for the 2022-23. Environmental sustainability, increased connectivity, focus on access to services and promotion of Tamil learning were some of the prominent aspects of the budget. As for what was in store for Chennai, the budget mainly comprised of a number of development projects related to easing traffic congestion, expansion and construction of highways, flood mitigation, disaster preparedness of the city, climate change and increasing green cover. Finance Minister PTR Thiagarjan. Source: Wikimedia Commons by Avenuesmadurai Read more: Sustainability needs a people-centric approach; is…

A new Mayor and Council are in place at Ripon Buildings. And in keeping with that there is plenty of hope. The Worshipful Mayor, in keeping with the ideology of her party, has resurrected the Singara Chennai slogan. A new plan had earlier been unveiled by the Chief Minister under the name Singara Chennai 2.0. There is no doubt that the Mayor and Council will focus on making that vision a reality, given that she is from the same political party. And there is no doubt the opposition will protest, chiefly because it is the ruling party’s idea. The interests…

With different electoral constituencies in Mumbai for national, state and local elections, finding which one you belong to can be a little confusing, but is important to know before exercising your democratic right to vote for an elected representative at different levels of government. What is a constituency? A constituency refers to a geographical area which votes for an elected representative. Each constituency corresponds to a seat in a government body, depending on the election. Given there are three levels - national, state and local - of elections in India, each place falls into three constituencies of different sets. What…

BBMP has spent over 100 crores on fixing, remodelling, and maintaining drains in just one ward – HSR Layout. Their Stormwater Drain Department does not maintain records like work registers or the progress reports of works. BBMP has been indicted for ineffective and inefficient collection of waste, non-compliance with waste management rules, and lack of scientific processing facilities at landfill sites. These are just three instances of impropriety and poor performance in local government bodies. All these are issues that citizens should demand accountability from their elected reps and officials. One easy way to be aware of such issues is…

Resettlement sites where those evicted from across Chennai are moved to are known to be constructed in poorly connected areas, with a lack of people-centric infrastructure, often neglected by the state. But another oft neglected complication that arises as a result of the resettlement is that many stop receiving their pension once they move to their new homes. The reason cited by local officials is that since residents' addresses change to another district, in this case from Chennai to Chengalpattu district, they would have to file a new application to receive pension. This results in a long drawn out process…

Congestion and pollution in Mumbai is an ever-increasing, annual problem. By 2030, transport emissions will replace industrial fumes to become the biggest contributor to air pollution in Mumbai. One wonders, then, why the demand for a livelihood in what is now arguably a difficult city to live in, is still so high. Why do citizens put up with slow development and still pay the highest taxes? Metro work seems to have slowed down, while other bridges and coastal roads continue to be prioritised. Potholes, illegal parking and unattended vehicles obstructing pathways are ignored in many parts of town. As Mumbai…

Municipal councillors in Mumbai are elected officials for a city’s municipal corporation. They play a critical role in the development and functioning of the city as the primary facilitator between citizens and the state government.   What does a councillor do within their constituency? Councillors in Mumbai execute various developmental procedures in their constituency through the Rs 1.5 crore per annum of local area development fund granted to their local ward by the Brihanmumbai Mumbai Corporation (BMC). A further Rs 60 lakhs of discretionary funds are allocated to every councillor to be spent on their constituency for work they deem as…

Whoever forms the new Uttarakhand government in March will have several important urban issues to deal with. The first part of this article had given 10 specific suggestions for the new government to consider in its efforts to make urban development in the state sustainable and inclusive. In this second part, we again take a look at 10 data-driven competitions of the central government, which explicitly expose the poor performance of Dehradun and the state’s urban frameworks. Swachh Survekshan 2021 This was the world’s largest sanitation survey which covered 4320 cities across India. The results, announced in November 2021, saw Indore…

Will well-intentioned idealism end what has been a relatively golden period for Bengaluru's lakes? The rapid unplanned "development" on the then outskirts of the city in the early 2000s was destroying water bodies that had existed for hundreds of years. But thanks to a reasonably good partnership between Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and different citizen-led groups, the last 10 years saw the revival of many of Bengaluru's lakes. Citizen participation in lake maintenance In the summer of 2011, BBMP, the custodian of most of Bengaluru's lakes, decided to hand over maintenance of 13 lakes to non-governmental entities through Memorandums…

Citizen activism and public pressure forced BBMP, Bengaluru's city government to start convening ward committee meetings in 2018. Citizens and officials have since been making efforts to keep the committees functional and effective. But issues like representation and ensuring regular and effective ward committee meetings need urgent attention. There is the additional issue of the absence of elected municipal corporators since September 2020, since they have to chair their respective ward committees Ward committees are presently functioning informally. Srinivas Alavilli, Head - Civic Participation, Janaagraha, says a system has been put in place for the proper functioning of ward committees.…