Good morning, Chennai!
⛅ Today’s weather: Mostly sunny with a little cloud cover.
🧐 Did you know? Chennai has the second-largest artificial seaport in India, located on the Bay of Bengal.
⚕️ PHCs in poor shape
Chennai Public Health Centres are in poor shape due to shortages of money and medical professionals.
What’s it about? The Corporation’s primary healthcare centres and network are in crisis. Several centres don’t have adequate room, equipment and personnel. The poor infrastructure means many patients don’t have beds or wheelchairs.
- Staff at the Old Washermenpet and Tondiarpet health centre complain of inadequate scanning machines and crumbling infrastructure.
- With the shortage of personnel, some doctors are forced to see 200 patients a day. It calls for new posts of doctors and nurses to be created based on the demand at each centre.
What’s the budget? The 140 centres get ₹5 crore per annum. The 16 mini multi-speciality centres get ₹2.9 crore to manage 30-100 beds for the year. For getting medicines, ₹8 crore is allocated. For those centres that are one-doctor ancillary clinics, they get a one-time budget of ₹25 lakh.
🚇 Signages for commuters
The Chennai Metro plans to have signages in transport hubs for commuters.
What’s it about? Since lakhs of passengers enter and leave Chennai by trains and buses, many aren’t aware of the location of the nearest metro station. To rectify this, signages will come up to guide them.
- The hubs chosen are the Central Railway Station, Egmore Railway Station and the Chennai Moffusil Bus Terminus (CMBT).
- The signage will display train timings, frequencies, and fares. The route of the trains and important locations in the city will also be displayed.
Footfall information: The average daily footfall at the Chennai Central Metro Rail station is a little over 23,000. At the Egmore metro station and CMBT, it’s 6,043 and 7,379, respectively.
🌊 Treating sewage
A Dutch-sponsored project helps a school avoid flooding during monsoons.
What’s it about? Thanks to the Netherlands government’s City of 1000 Tanks (COTT) project, the Little Flower Convent school for the deaf and dumb no longer faces a flooding problem during the monsoons. The ₹2 crore project involved nature-based solutions to treat wastewater and recharge it back to the ground.
- The school generates about 27,000 litres of wastewater daily that collects in a tank. The bacteria in the 5-metre-deep tank has bacteria that eat up the pollutants. It then travels to constructed wetlands with helophytic plants that absorb nitrogen and phosphorous.
- On average, the school recharges over 26,000 litres daily. Rainwater is also recharged into two wells in the school. Even though the water isn’t fit for drinking, it can be used for other purposes.
Concerns: In public spaces, it can be tough to find locations to build wetlands. There may also not be much control over the input and output of wastewater and treated water.
📱 Rise in cyber honey trap cases
The Chennai Police has formed special teams to tackle the issue as cases rise.
What’s it about? As cyber honey trap cases increase, the Chennai police have urged the public not to panic and instead reach out to them for assistance. They’re advised to call the 1930 toll-free helpline or register a complaint at www.cybercrime.gov.in.
- In the past three months, the police have received three dozen complaints. Most of the culprits operate in other cities and states. They trap people in compromising situations and extort money.
- In one instance, a 35-year-old man began receiving calls asking for ₹50,000, or else a supposed video of him would be circulated. When the money demand increased, he lodged a complaint.
Modus Operandi: Many of these scams are done through messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Now, they’re even using AI tools. The police have stated people shouldn’t answer spam calls or unknown numbers.
✨ Things to do…
Here are some fun and interesting things to do in the city over the weekend!
- Paatu Paada Va is an open-mic night for live music performances of various genres, this Sunday.
- The German Film Festival presents some of Germany’s finest movies this Saturday.
- Indie Live with Classic Studio presents accomplished indie artists this Sunday.
- For a great shopping experience, head to The Chennai Edit this Saturday.
- TM Krishna performs live for the first time in Chennai to benefit Sankara Nethralaya this Saturday.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll Results:
- I have attended a pottery workshop: 14.3%
- I have never attended a pottery workshop: 85.7% 🏆
That’s it for today. Have a great weekend!