February | 2018 | Citizen Matters, Chennai

TASMAC vs residents: Proposed Chromepet shop stirs up protests

February 28, 2018 Bhavani Prabhakar

State excise authorities have been trying every means to keep the TASMAC cash registers ringing. Downgrading roads. Relocating shops to residential areas. Citizens meanwhile continue the long fight.

How to help your child beat the exam blues

February 26, 2018 Sandhya Raju

The Board exams are just around the corner; do you find your child to be unusually quiet, or restless, or excessively irritable? Here’s how to identify signs of beyond-normal stress in your child, how to tackle it and where to seek help in Chennai.

As Chennai cheers Hasini verdict, countless others keep waiting for justice

February 23, 2018 Laasya Shekhar

Chennai has welcomed the speedy verdict by a local court in the Hasini rape and murder case, but over 80% of child rape cases in the state continue to languish in courts due to inefficiencies and delays in the judicial system.

What Chennai could learn from cycle-sharing in IIT Madras

February 21, 2018 Bhavani Prabhakar

IIT-M students have 600 bicycles on campus provided by Zoomcar, Ola and others, which they share during the day. The initial experience and hiccups may hold important lessons for a city trying to replicate the model on a larger scale.

The Cauvery verdict: Should Chennai worry?

February 20, 2018 Laasya Shekhar

The reduced water allocation for Tamil Nadu in the interstate Cauvery water-sharing dispute has caused a lot of worry among farmers in the state’s agricultural belt, but will the ripples be felt in Chennai too?

Chennai rivers in ICU: Waterman sounds wake-up call for citizens

February 20, 2018 Sandhya Raju

In Chennai to talk on river restoration at the DAMned ART festival organised by the Goethe Institut, Dr Rajendra Singh, popularly called the Waterman of India, repeatedly emphasized the role of citizens and community.

Missing! Our city’s Corporation

February 16, 2018 V Sriram

It has been well over a year since the city has had an elected municipal Council to handle civic issues and it is still uncertain when elections to the Greater Chennai Corporation will be held.

What the Urur Olcott Kuppam Vizha promotes, beyond art

February 15, 2018 Laasya Shekhar

The Vizha is widely hailed as an event that is taking arts to everyone, but it is also commendable in its efforts to go zero-waste, thus spreading an important message on sustainability.

Countless ways to go green in Chennai

February 13, 2018 Bhavani Prabhakar

Want a sustainable lifestyle, but wondering how to? Thankfully, in Chennai there are a number of people and initiatives who can help facilitate that in part, through their products and services, as the recent Reciprocity Fest showcased.

In photos: Whose garbage is this, anyway?

February 12, 2018 News Desk

Domestic and industrial waste management receives a lot of focus in discussions around cleanliness of the city, but what about the dumps created by governmental and parastatal departments? These photos call for an urgent policy to tackle this.

This weekend in Chennai, take a few steps closer to sustainable living

February 9, 2018 Laasya Shekhar

The Reciprocity Fest, scheduled for February 10th and 11th, seeks to generate awareness and build citizen networks around ‘green’ products and practices, through music, art, workshops and games.

Manhole in lake shows all that’s wrong with sewage management in Chennai

February 8, 2018 Bhavani Prabhakar

That most of Chennai’s water bodies are contaminated by sewage is common knowledge, but what exactly is lacking in the sewerage management infrastructure that makes this possible?

College students turn mentors for kids from Chintadripet slum

February 7, 2018 Laasya Shekhar

Students from the Madras School of Social Work are working with less-privileged children from the area, to divert them from the ills of their social environment and help them develop as productive individuals.

In Digital India, why do we need a broker to renew our driving licence?

February 6, 2018 Raghukumar Choodamani

Incomplete digital records, lack of information on actual fees payable to the RTO, and intermediaries waiting to take advantage — that’s what a Chennai citizen comes up against, in something as simple as renewal of a driving licence.

Walking along the Chennai beach to a career in conservation

February 2, 2018 Karthikeyan Hemalatha

For 30 years now, between January and March, student volunteers of the SSTCN walk along two stretches of beaches during Olive Ridley nesting season. For many, it’s the start of a passion of a lifetime.