Governance

Co-authored by Milind Mhaske and Meghna Bandelwar India has witnessed, dealt with and survived an outbreak of several epidemics such as swine flu, small pox, plague, dengue, hepatitis amongst many others, the most recent being the Nipah virus outbreak. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, seems to have created an unprecedented global emergency and the entire world is grappling with the challenge of curbing its spread and providing medical care to the huge numbers of people infected. India has taken measures at the Central and state level to prevent and curtail the spread of the pandemic. The city governments too are trying…

The cancellation of the traditional Ashokastami Rath Yatra (car Festival) of the 11th century Sri Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneswar on April 1ST, which also happens to be Odisha’s foundation day, reflects the state government’s approach to contain the spread of the virus. Like Puri’s car festival, the Ashokastami Yatra, held a day before Ram Navami, has been one of the city’s traditional festivals since the 12th century. Even at the height of the Orissa famine in 1866, (Naanka Durvikhya in Oriya) this was not cancelled. But the injunction against large gatherings to prevent the coronavirus spread forced the temple authorities to cancel…

Left with few options to prevent the spread of the virus, the Telangana police have intensified lockdown procedures by imposing a 7 pm to 6 am curfew in Hyderabad. The government is working to ensure that the city’s 5.4 lakh people below poverty line (BPL) (as per 2017 govt data) -- of which 4.3 lakh are in the core city area while the rest live in surrounding municipalities -- get adequate relief. Immediately following the Prime Minister’s speech on March 22nd, Hyderabad saw a sudden exodus of people desperate to reach their villages in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and other states.…

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the governments of Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) have released various mobile apps. Most of them are meant for one or more of these purposes:  Ensure compliance with quarantine rules Provide information about symptoms and healthcare, and updates about the outbreak Tracing of confirmed and at-risk cases Tracing contact history with confirmed and at-risk cases A slew of mobile apps and other Internet-based interventions have been released by governments and private entities around the world. Google’s Android application store…

Translated by Sandhya Raju ஊரடங்கு அமலில் உள்ள இந்த நேரத்தில், அவசர பயணம் மேற்கொள்வது பற்றியும், அதற்கான பயண பாஸ் வாங்கும் முறை குறித்தும் பலருக்கு கேள்விகள் உள்ளன. சமூக விலகல் கடைபிடிக்க கடுமையான நடவடிக்கைகள் அமலில் உள்ளது, அவசரத்திற்காக வெளியில் வரும் சூழல் இருந்தாலும் தேவையில்லாமல் கூட்டம் கூடுவதை தடுக்க பாஸ் வழங்கும் முறையும் வரையுறுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. சென்னையில் பயண பாஸ் வாங்கும் முறை குறித்த சில அடிப்படை கேள்விகளுக்கான வழிகாட்டியை இங்கே தொகுத்துள்ளோம்: பயண பாஸ் யாரால் வழங்கப்படுகிறது? இந்த செயல்முறை சென்டரலைஸ் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது. மாவட்ட ஆணையர்கள் தங்களது தனிப்பட்ட உதவியாளர் (பொது) மூலமும், பெருநகர சென்னை மாநகராட்சிஆணையரும் தகுந்த சரிபார்த்தலுக்கு பிறகு பயண பாஸ் வழங்குவர்.  யாரெல்லாம் பயண பாஸ் வாங்க முடியும்? தற்போது திருத்தப்பட்ட விதிமுறைகள் படி, மூன்று காரணங்களுக்காக மட்டுமே சென்னை மாநகராட்சி மாற்றுத்திறனாளிகள் உட்பட குடிமக்களுக்கு,  பயண அனுமதியை அளிக்கிறது:  திருமணம், இறப்பு…

The world currently faces one of the most devastating and unprecedented health and human crises ever in the form of the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak. Even as this piece is being written, COVID-19 has claimed close to 70 lives in our country and has seen over 2600 positive cases. The central government, state governments and local governments have ramped up their efforts and are fighting the infection on a war footing. The entire country has been locked down for a period of 21 days starting March 25th. In such a scenario, cities and towns in India continue to be…

Several reports from across Bengaluru point to tenants -- migrants, students, young professionals, flight attendants and others -- being asked by house owners to vacate their accommodation without prior notice. With the 21-day nation-wide lockdown in force, some helpless tenants are in a state of trauma after being forced to vacate. The lockdown clearly means that no one should leave their homes. According to a news report, an airline stewardess living in Kothanur was asked to vacate her apartment after her rent agreement expired on 28 March 2020. With all flight operation suspended and her monthly salary not credited, the…

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…