The Yamuna ghats were smogged, cleaned, and re-constructed during the Chatth Puja. Fasting women went into the toxic and foamy water flowing into the Yamuna to worship the sun god. Politicians across the spectrum took up the task of developing the Chatth Ghat at the...
Category: Blogs
Paving the Way: Street Vendors as Catalysts for Sustainable Urban Development, Another City is Possible
‘Another City is Possible’ is a PRC initiative to strengthen the public dialogue about urban and various issues it is plagued by. Fostering urban as an inclusive space, another city is possible is a podcast series conducted as on-ground sessions, webinars and interactive discussions with...
Cultivated Idea
[This article was originally published in Down To Earth] The potential of urban agriculture in alleviating food insecurity in cities requires holistic policy support from governments. Some 60 per cent of Delhi’s demand for meat is fulfilled by city-grown produce, as is 25 percent...
Caught in the Tangles of Court Orders and ‘Development’, the Yamuna Remains As Polluted As Ever
[This article was originally published in The Bastion] Crores have been spent by various state governments on different policies to ‘develop’ the Yamuna and bring it back to life. In the process, such schemes disenfranchise those communities that have lived by the river for generations....
Why Kolkata must reconsider its bicycle ban
– Debapriya Chanda [This article was originally published in Citizen Matters] In recent times, one of the lasting representations of Kolkata in popular culture lies in an iconic scene from the film Piku, where Bhashkor Banerjee, played by Amitabh Bachchan, is seen riding a bicycle...
In Pedestrian-Heavy Patna, Crores are Being Invested in Road and Metro Projects Instead
– Debapriya Chanda and Nishant [This article was originally published in The Bastion] The exclusionary model of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation—one of India’s pioneering metro rails—is being replicated in the planning of metro projects in tier two cities like Patna. This one-size-fits-all approach to...
Delhi’s Draft Master Plan 2041 Is of the DDA, Not of the People
– Akshita Rawat [Originally published in The Wire.in] The draft plan is exclusionary in its vision and approach as DDA has made no efforts to reach out to stakeholders like agricultural workers, farmers, residents of “unauthorised” colonies, etc. “The right to the city is, therefore,...
Privatisation of public transport: The risks ahead
– Palash Shakya [Originally published in Citizen Matters (Link to the original article)] PRIVATISING BUS SERVICES: THE IMPLICATIONS A Delhi Transport Corporation Bus. Pic: Ramesh NG/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 As a student of history, I was inquisitive about the evolution of the BEST...
A Poor Replica
A POOR REPLICA Archana Singh and Rajendra Ravi (An edited version of this article was published in Down To Earth magazine in July 2021) After much delay, the Bihar government is finally pushing ahead with its 20.5- km expressway project, being built along the banks...
Delhi’s Master Plan Ignores the City’s Fishers, But This is Not a First
– Vaishnavi Rathore [Originally published in The Bastion (Link to the original article)] The Delhi Development Authority’s Master Plan 2041 has been released for public feedback. While the floodplains of the Yamuna river feature generously in the document, their uses are limited to aesthetic and...