Governance

While most of restaurants in the city have downed their shutters, the Amma Unavagams have come to the rescue of daily wagers and migrant labourers in Chennai. Ever since the lockdown was announced, the government-run canteens have been witnessing heavy footfall. Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has also announced free food for the sanitation workers during the lockdown period. “Every canteen has the potential to cater to 2000 to 3000 people every day. All the canteens can together cater to about 10 lakh people. We have equipped them to cater to more,” says GCC Commissioner Prakash. The corporation has also trained…

It is being called the ‘long march of India’ - millions of migrant workers are fleeing our cities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Ex-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s 1967 political slogan “Roti Kapda aur Makaan” still resonates with approximately 139 million internal migrants in our country who form the unappreciated (but not anymore, as we are forced to clean up our homes) layer of our service industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen one of the most stringent lockdowns in the history of our country. And it was necessary too, to curb the spread of the virus. But the entire concept of lockdown…

The whole country is in lockdown in the hope of containing coronavirus. But as WHO has warned, lockdowns alone aren’t enough to tackle the pandemic. A critical step in containing coronavirus is contact tracing -- identifying anyone who came in contact with an infected person, quarantining and monitoring them. But in many of our cities, particularly in north India, contact tracing has been poor or even non-existent. Besides, there’s been large scale and blatant violations of the Central guidelines on mandatory quarantine of those who have returned from abroad. The worst offender is perhaps Bhopal, which doesn’t seem to have…

It has come to our notice that this article has been forwarded on several chat and social media platforms with a MISLEADING introduction that the Disaster Management Act prohibits any citizen, apart from the government, to post any update or share any forward related to Coronavirus, making it a punishable offence. This is NOT what the article below says; it merely explains the provisions of the said law, and points out that **FAKE** claims and warnings may attract penalties under Sections 52 and 54 of the Act. Fake news peddlers may now face imprisonment of up to one year or…

Co-authored by Tarun Sharma and Yutika Vora Many viruses have come and gone (though not fully), but COVID-19 has affected our daily lives like nothing else has, in many of our lifetimes. The spectre of this virus is still unfolding and the stories of its onslaught and the response of various countries are rapidly emerging. Lessons from this human-virus conflict will certainly shape a lot of thought and decisions in the way humanity deals with public health emergencies including responses of governments and citizens.  Some such observations are instructive for all of us: citizens and city governments.  Role of citizens…

As lunch hour breaks, there's palpable energy among the students of Chennai Primary School run by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) in Tondiarpet, as they gather to eat their protein-rich midday meal -- eggs and sambar rice. However, just a few kilometres away, the students in the Government Primary School at Ennore, are not as fortunate. Forget mid-day meals, the 32 children belonging to various classes of the government school do not even have enough room to sit according to class - they  are all accommodated in a single congested asbestos-sheeted classroom. The school in Tondiarpet has roped in NGOs…

Delhi's riot-ravaged north-east district is slowly picking itself up. Relief, rehabilitation and compensation for the families of 53 dead, more than 200 injured and the hundreds displaced and deprived is gaining steam, even though grief, bewilderment and confusion still hang over residents. The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005 provides for (a) prevention and control of communal violence, (b) speedy investigation and trials, and (c) rehabilitation of victims. While efforts at prevention, control or investigation of communal violence, with special trial courts for speedy justice, are under question, rehabilitation at least is gaining strength. But skirting…

The draft proposal for BBMP ward delimitation has been notified in the gazette. The idea is to improve services and fund allocation in the newly-added areas of BBMP, but this can't be achieved through the current proposal. Why delimitation? According to the 74th Constitutional Amendment, urban local bodies (ULBs) with population of more than three lakh were mandated to constitute wards and ward committees. Wards and ward committees provide a mechanism for participatory democracy at the grassroots level and ensure services and resources are allocated on an equitable basis for good quality of life to citizens. To ensure equitable services and…

Mumbai, the country's financial capital, is also home to Asia’s largest slum, with a majority of its citizens living in this and the many other slums that co-exist alongside the city’s many luxury skyscrapers. Over the years, successive state governments have announced many grandiose plans to replace these slums with low cost housing. But the slums, lacking in basic infrastructure and amenities like water and electricity continue to proliferate, even as huge numbers of luxury housing units remain unsold.  In fact, Greater Mumbai has the highest share of slum households in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR - 79% with 11,01,655…