Governance

Booking a slot on the CoWin app is like participating in a lucky draw. The online slots get taken in seconds. This poses a challenge for people who do not have access to technology and/or don’t know how to check social media for the booking timings. Every day after 6 pm, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), tweets on its Twitter handle (@mybmc) the approximate time of the slots to be opened for next day’s appointment. But not even digitally savvy people manage to book appointments. “I have been trying to get the first dose appointment slots for my mom and…

Each time a survey, however small or flawed it is, places Bengaluru on top of its list, you can be rest assured that the government will paste full-page advertisements in papers, of its leaders claiming credit for it. Wonder why there is complete silence when Bengaluru became the city with the most active COVID cases not just in India, but across the world. After all, the political establishment has perhaps contributed more to Bengaluru’s horrifying COVID scenario than it has in the city being ‘the most liveable’, ‘most dynamic’ or for being the start-up capital.  At crematoria, at hospitals, in…

With the announcement of the results of the state assembly elections 2021, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has returned to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of ten years. The DMK continues its stronghold over many parts of Chennai, even reclaiming constituencies such as Mylapore where it had not won in two decades.However, elections results are just a starting point for citizens, not an end. We must hold our elected representatives accountable throughout their tenure. Who is your new MLA? What are his credentials? What are the issues he needs to address? Here is a list of all the winners…

The Maharashtra government’s handling of the 2021 lockdown holds lessons for students of public policy about how a simple tweak in government attitude and policy could prevent so many tragedies and prove beneficial for so many. In April 2020, the sudden closure of rail services and public transport forced migrant workers in many states to flee on trucks, cycles, cement mixers and on foot for hundreds of kilometers back to their villages facing death, starvation and suffering.  Forced by the public outcry, the railways did start Shramik trains. But the 4621 Shramik trains that ferried 63 lakh passengers in 2020-21…

A group of individuals and members of civil society organisations including Whitefield Rising, Bangalore Apartment Federation, and Sochara, have written to the Karnataka Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa, highlighting major issues in COVID Management, with suggestions and asks for immediate steps. Here's the letter Dear Shri Yediyurappa, Bengaluru urban and rural is in an extremely serious state with a large number of COVID patients in need of medical resources, from hospital beds, to oxygen infrastructure to ICUs and ventilators. Volunteers and family members of patients are making desperate calls and sending messages to find sources to help those in need. We…

The devastation that we see around us today caused by the second wave of COVID-19 in the country, is not just because of the rates of contagion and the virulence of the disease, but also — and perhaps, more significantly — because of the crunch in life-saving resources. Especially something we have always taken for granted — Oxygen.  But why did the country run short of oxygen and have we been able to find solutions to tide over the shortage? Although oxygen is the element primarily responsible for sustaining life on planet Earth and constitutes 21% of the atmosphere, oxygen…

In the view of the rapidly rising COVID cases and deaths in entire families, the State government and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have, over the last two days, ordered measures to deal with emergency requirements such as setting up of ICU beds, support for orphaned children, monitoring oxygen supply and modifying home-isolation protocols. While the direction of oxygen monitoring and supply came after the tragedy at the Chamarajanagar district hospital, where 23 COVID patients succumbed due to lack of oxygen, the government also appointed IAS officers to take care of children orphaned due to the pandemic. A nodal…

Little did Kirtee Bhai, who in a webinar had referred to ‘Delhi’ as a ‘way of governance model’ for cities, imagine that just a few months later Delhi would be would be transformed literally into a municipality. Kirtee Bhai, a member of the first urban commission constituted in 1986, was making a comparison between Delhi and Mumbai, terming the former with a legislature as a better model for city governance. A few weeks back, the central government passed an amendment in the Government of National Capital Delhi Act of 1991 (GNCTD), turning Delhi city-state into an adjunct of the central government…

“Urban administration and urban planning in India is undergoing a major change,” says Rajneesh, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban development. “Himachal Pradesh, a predominantly rural state, has to make this transition given that urbanisation is a fact of life and new ULBs (Urban Local bodies) must be strengthened”. This was the rationale given by the Himachal Pradesh government to form three new municipal corporations to administer Solan, Palampur and Mandi . While Solan is a fast growing town with several educational institutions of higher studies and a bustling business community, Palampur in Kangra district is a popular tea town and home to…

BBMP, Bengaluru's city government has never met its property tax targets in all these years. It wants to change that in 2021 - by revising the calculation, increasing the tax net, and verifying property data. In its yearly budget, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) fixed 2,800 crores as its property tax target for 2021-2022. This is lesser than the target of 3,500 cr. of last year, perhaps because BBMP was only able to meet 57% of that target (around 2000 cr.). The budget also proposed changing the tax calculation basis from the Unit Area Value System to Capital Value System.…