Good morning, Chennai!
🌤️ Today’s weather: High: 38 ℃ | Low: 28 ℃ | Mostly sunny weather for today.
🧐 Did you know? Madras had the Volunteer Guards beginning in 1857. It was mainly a body of Englishmen and Anglo Indians put together for the defence of the community in case something like a Sepoy Mutiny were to happen in the city.
🗣️ Explore Tamil folklore
A storytelling event takes participants back in time.
What’s it about? With the evolution of open mics as a concept across the city, it has become a new platform for storytelling as a performance medium. Vikram Sridhar’s ‘Stories from the Soil’ event takes participants on a journey through five regions of Tamil Nadu.
- Each region, Kurinji, Mullai, Marutham, Neithal, and Paalai has a story behind it, involving history and mythology.
- To help break the ice and keep it personal, Vikram asks the participants where they’re from and what meal they had.
New and old: Storytelling includes multiple interests and passions. The stories that Vikram tells are lived experiences. It’s a way to share folktales with a modern audience by giving it a new touch.
💸 Payouts to affected residents
Two more villages received cash payouts as compensation following the ammonia gas leak.
What’s the story so far? An ammonia leak last December from the Murugappa Group’s Coromandel International Limited (CIL) hospitalised 42 people. Locals protested and demanded the plant be permanently closed down. The company received conditional clearance from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in May. Ernavur Kuppam and VOC Nagar residents in Ennore received their cash payouts as part of the company’s compensation package.
- 200 families in Ernavur Kuppam were each given ₹5,000, and 303 families in VOC Nagar were given ₹2,000 each. While some residents accepted the money, others refused.
- Some residents refused after reading a document containing conditions for accepting the cash, including being satisfied with the company’s explanation.
Demand for investigation: A citizen’s collective comprising retired High Court judges K Kannan, D Hariparanthaman and others have asked the state government to initiate a probe.
🗣️ Area sabha meetings
A recent RTI response showed that area sabha meetings aren’t held per government norms.
What’s it about? Two years ago, the state government mandated that all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) conduct regular area and ward sabha meetings. An RTI from the Voice of People NGO showed only 126 out of the 663 ULB responses. 86% of them held meetings between one and four times per ward.
- The departments didn’t consolidate responses from all ULBs under their respective jurisdiction. They redirected the RTI queries to the individual ULBs to evade accountability.
- RTI responses were received from only zones 1, 2, and 12. Per the norms, each ward should have 4-10 area sabhas and 16-40 meetings annually.
Challenges: Area sabha meetings are scheduled quarterly. Officials initially assured that meetings would be held from January 1 to 24 and a ward sabha on January 25. However, it’s challenging due to civic and public issues that can’t be resolved in a short period.
🛣️ Authenticating hoardings
The Chennai Corporation will hire a private agency to verify hoardings in select areas.
What’s it about? The civic body will hire a private agency to physically verify hoardings in some areas. The chosen agency will photograph the hoardings, assign numbers, and submit a road-wise survey with GPS coordinates to the Corporation. The Corporation has already conducted a drive to remove 750 illegal hoardings.
- The areas will include Thiruvottiyur High Road, Mount Road, Anna Nagar Second Avenue, Nelson Manickam Road, 100 feet road, Poonamallee High Road from Koyambedu flyover to Maduravoyal, and Arcot Road.
- In a July council meeting, councillors told the Corporation to share a list of legal hoardings so they can identify the unauthorised ones. According to the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Act, the civic body is the nodal agency for permit and license hoardings.
Previous methodology: In the past, license inspectors of the revenue department of the Corporation would identify hoardings. These would be removed by zonal engineers.
📊 Today’s Poll
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Have you had to pay a traffic fine?
- I have had to pay a traffic fine.
- I’ve never had to pay a traffic fine.
❓ Today’s Question
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What’s your usual bedtime?
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🗞️ In other news…
- High city temperatures continue with some respite on the way with light to moderate rain.
- The Chennai Corporation will soon restore cut-up roads in Madhavaram ahead of the monsoon.
- The Jharcraft exhibition showcased artisans from Jharkhand and will expand to other big cities.
- The Chief Secretary stressed the importance of zonal meetings to ensure monsoon preparedness.
- The first driverless trains for the metro’s phase 2 are set to arrive at the end of this month.
That’s it for today. Have a great day!