Meenakshi Ramesh is involved in civic initiatives in Chennai and anchors the Chennai edition of Citizen Matters. She has also worked with Pratham.
She can be reached at meenakshi@citizenmatters.in
An active SWM volunteer is cautiously hopeful that the new service provider will help Chennai improve its source segregation and solid waste management record.
In a year where we published 280 stories on a variety of themes that shape life in Chennai, here is a look back at our favourite stories and a roundup of the year for Citizen Matters Chennai.
Tired of waiting for PWD to fulfil its promise, volunteers sourced and planted saplings in an effort to restore the tree cover at Kotturpuram Tree Park.
No one says we don’t want trees, but it appears that trees have no friends left among the various civic authorities in Chennai, as they go about brutally hacking, cutting and uprooting carefully nurtured trees.
NOF, an organisation focusing on improving Chennai’s SWM practices, shares stories, nuggets of wisdom and a wonderful children’s villu pattu performance, as part of their anniversary celebrations
The Chennai Book Fair — incidentally, India’s largest book fair — is on in our own city. Don’t miss the experience the joy of holding, smelling and reading a new book!
As the ban on single use plastics comes into effect in Tamil Nadu, we recap our stories related to solid waste management, and appeal to all our readers to join the movement.
An initiative to honour and feed the conservancy workers of Chennai, brings a diverse group of NGOs, volunteers, corporates and individuals together, as they try to pull off a big logistical exercise on October 2nd. Would you want to join in?
Well known historian Sriram V talks about his journey from Walk 1 to Walk 75, his love for Chennai and its heritage, and what he thinks we must do to conserve it better
Large stretches of pavement were dug up and young trees uprooted by the GCC between Theosophical Society and Olcott School to make way for bicycle lanes. Citizens put up strong resistance and have forced authorities to rethink the project.
Long queues, overcrowded baggage belts, immigration fiascos and filthy terminals — the Chennai airport is an embarrassment and an ordeal for commuters from the city.
On Bhogi, people discard old and derelict things and look for new things that signal change or transformation. At dawn, people light a bonfire with logs of wood, other combustible stuff (mainly knick knacks that
Battered roads, mounting garbage or hanging cables, whatever the problem, members of this civic forum will guide you on informing the right officials and having these resolved.
Civil society group Voice of People has designed a survey for residents of Zone 13 of the GCC, findings of which will be used to create a manifesto and submitted to the councillor of each ward in the zone. Read about the group and their initiatives.
