Articles by News Desk

The News Desk at Citizen Matters puts out Press Releases, notifications and curated information useful to the urban reader.

In March 2023, a 55-year-old woman who rode pillion on her son’s bike was injured when the duo were chased by street dogs and attempted to escape from them. She passed away a week later. There have been reports of more injuries to individuals as a result of street dogs in Chennai in recent months.  Such incidents have prompted heated debates between those affected by street dogs in the city and animal welfare activists who seek better treatment of street and community dogs in Chennai.  Residents and activists have both pointed out failures in street dog management by the civic…

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Chennai Corporation to audit old buildings in Parry's Corner The Greater Chennai Corporation is to audit the stability of the buildings in Parry's Corner after a 70-year-old building in the area collapsed recently. A building on Armenian Street, which was under renovation, collapsed on April 19. The incident left four injured. As many as 280 personnel were deployed in the rescue operation and more than 30 trucks were used to clear the debris. Officials of the civic body stated that prior permission had not been accorded for carrying out the renovation of the building. Source: DT Next Expert Appraisal Committee…

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Sunstroke deaths in Kharghar at Maharashtra government event At least 14 people died on Sunday from sunstroke during the Maharashtra Bhushan award ceremony held in Kharghar, which is located in the Raigad district neighbouring Mumbai. The event was organised by the Maharashtra government, and the chief guest was Home Minister Amit Shah. The cause of death has been confirmed by health officials after port-morterm. It was also found that two of the deceased also suffered from co-morbidities. The award ceremony was held in an open ground and attended by several lakh people, most of them followers of spiritual leader Appasaheb…

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Poll fever shoots up Even as all parties swing into campaigning, efforts are being made to increase voter turnout, hoping that it would go up to at least 75% from last time’s 55%. About 1.35 lakh voters in the age groups of 18-19 years will vote for the first time. About five lakh voters have been added since January 2023, said Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner and District Election Officer Tushar Giri Nath at a voter awareness campaign organised by Bengaluru Chamber of Industries and Commerce (BCIC) . The hope is that voting goes up to 100%. A…

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Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF) is a federation representing the interests of residents of apartments and villa communities across Bengaluru. More than 1,180 apartment and villa resident welfare associations (RWAs) are members of BAF, representing nearly 250,000 households with close to one and a half million citizens either residing or working within these communities. Bengaluru city is growing at a rapid pace – nearly 1.35 crore of people from various parts of the country and the world have made this city their home. The rapid increase in population has been supported by a massive growth of vertical-living as the housing format.…

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‘Civil Society Forum’ is a coalition of several civil society organisations and movements as well as individuals. It wishes to strengthen the electoral and democratic process in our city and state to make it more participatory and reflective of the real wishes of the people. The member organisations and individuals work in different sectors of urban and rural constituencies, engaging with diverse and marginalised communities in Karnataka and other states too. The Forum was actively involved in interacting with political parties, submitting manifestos during the Karnataka Assembly Elections in 2013 and 2018, the Lok Sabha Elections in 2014 and 2019…

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In the wake of fierce citizen opposition to the Sankey Flyover and road widening project, the Citizens of Malleshwaram Constituency came together to create a ‘Climate Action Manifesto 2023-2024’ for their constituency. Citizens for Sankey presented this manifesto to Siddaramaiah of Congress and Dr. Ashwath Narayan, BJP, on March 28th. Read more: 10 guarantees in Aam Aadmi Party’s Karnataka manifesto Summary of the five-point climate action manifesto. Graphic courtesy: Citizens for Sankey "To safeguard the future of our city, our elected representatives and civic bodies must coordinate closely with us citizens when making decisions, which impact us all. A repeat…

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Greater Chennai Corporation plans to clear abandoned vehicles In a joint operation with the police, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) plans to clear the city's streets of all abandoned vehicles. The drive will cover 471 bus routes roads and 40,000 streets across Chennai and is aimed at reducing congestion. As a first step, GCC plans to count the number of abandoned vehicles across 15 zones. Then, the owners of the vehicles will be sent a notice providing two weeks to remove the vehicles. After this time period, the GCC and the police will seize the vehicles. Details such as the…

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Fishy investigation in IIT suicide case: Father says caste issue sidelined, raises question on authenticity of note found Ramesh Solanki, father of Darshan Solanki, an IIT Bombay student who died by suicide in February, wrote a letter to the special investigation team (SIT) expressing his concern that the police may have overlooked the possibility of "caste discrimination" playing a role in his son's death. He also questioned the findings of handwriting experts which concluded that the "suicide note" found at the scene was written by his son. The father has also expressed concerns regarding the SIT investigation, which implicated another…

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Govt 'failed' in education: Civil rights body The government's performance in education has been marked ‘Grade E’ (Fail) by the civil rights group, Bahutva Karnataka. It evaluated the state's performance based on certain parameters, such as the learning abilities of students, implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, communalisation of education, revision of the curriculum, exclusion of students from marginalised communities, infrastructure, among others. The forum, consisting of education experts and student activists, said that its report card is an outcome of evaluation based on the government's performance in relation to its own goals, as well as the constitutional…

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