Sravani Nellore

Chennai, Mar 1: As one enters the Gandhi Street in Kandanchavadi, one cannot miss the striking observation that the slanting roofs of the houses on the right-hand side of the road equals one’s height. The constant re-laying of the road, sometimes twice or thrice a year, without actually milling it, has resulted in the elevation of the road by clearly three inches at certain spots.

As a result, some residents in the older houses here have had to build three-four steps in front of their doors to match the level of the road.

J. Jaikar, a resident in the street, says, “We came here when the place was wanting in development. When my house my built, it was actually three steps higher than the ground level. But now, the ground level has reached till the door. Every time a road is being re-laid, milling has to be done. Laying the road multiple times without milling has resulted in the increase in the width of the roads.

B. Ganesan, who owns a flour mill here, says, “During the rains, our houses and shops remain inundated for days. The last time the road was about to be re-laid, all of us gathered to protest against it, demanding the civic body to first mill it.”

Responding to the complaints, Kamal Raj, Assistant Engineer at the Corporation office ward 184, said, “There is a new rule now that mandates milling before re-laying the road as against earlier, when it was done only where necessary.” Interestingly, most of the times, the Corporation found it unnecessary to mill the roads because of extra load, manpower and costs involved in it.He further added that once the drainage system work, that is under process, is completed, a new road will be laid in keeping with the rules.

According to Radhakrishnan, the head of Thozhan, an organisation that works on road safety, a road gets a warranty period of two-three years, before which, there shouldn’t be any issue. “Ideally, there shouldn’t even arise the need to re-lay the road in a period of three years. But contractors, who are hired for milling, quote very less than the market price and neglect the work. For instance, if the market price of milling is Rs.80 per square metre, the contractor instead takes just Rs.10 and doesn’t do the work,” he elaborated.

Why is milling necessary?

Although milling takes hardly four hours, most of the roads in the city are not milled. As per government order, 40 mm width of the road has to be milled, for which, a road roller has to make ten rounds across the road. When this is not done before re-laying a road, the height of the road increases. “The roads naturally tend to expand under hot temperatures, and if not milled properly, the height gets doubled up, which then leads to development of cracks, making it accident-prone,” Radhakrishnan explains.

Tanya Khandelwal

Chennai, Feb 28: Hailing how we still have our elections ‘on time, each time, every time’ while in the same breath highlighting the malaise of money and muscle power that plague the biggest democratic exercise in India, Former Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla opened his discussion with students at Asian College of Journalism here on Tuesday with the issue surrounding the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the context of the fast approaching general elections.

He threw light on both the pros and cons of elections in India, focussing on the orderly transfer of power post elections as compared to many other nations and the increasing number of registered voters on roll despite the low literacy rates in many areas. While he didn’t fail to mention the ‘Black Money’ monster that hovers over the whole process, he pointed out how the most recent example of the same was the 2017 R K Nagar by- election fiasco in Chennai where the Election Commission cancelled elections after allegations of cash-for-vote surfaced; a similar case had happened in the past in Thirumangalam in Madurai district in the State. All such malpractices raise questions on the fairness of this largely successful, ‘free and fair’ democratic exercise.

In this context, the issue of paid and fake news were also discussed, how these have become ways of manipulating the polls and tilting the scales in favour of one side as opposed to the other, all this happening with the money power that is an ever growing threat to the same. The media’s role in such practices has also been observed and many media houses of repute have been part of such activity, said Navin Chawla, refraining from naming any.

Responding to a question on state funding of elections as a possible solution to the issue of money power being used, he said that there are several models we could follow on the lines of countries like Mexico where the election commission, though not as strong and robust as the ECI, but nonetheless it steps in to monitor the time and space available to several political parties ahead of elections allotting them time and space on TV and in print proportionately. This, he said, is one of the many such models which could serve as a solution.

With respect to EVMs, he said, “My views have been cast in stone in this book,” referring to his newly released book Every Vote Counts: The Story of India’s Elections. He pointed out that in recent years, those who lose tend to blame the EVMs.“I think that our EVM and our system of accountability is completely safe,” he added.

By Ashna Butani

Mother Teresa Women’s Complex brims with activity, as 55 women set up stalls with meticulously handcrafted items. The Women’s Mela is organised by the Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women, with an aim to employ those who could not sustain their livelihoods.

Sketches and paintings adorn the tables and walls while fresh fruits and vegetables sit on the tables beside. Kurtis, dresses and saris in myriad colours and prints entice the customers.

The mela is held every year after the Pongal festival. It began on 4^th February and continued till 15^th February. However, this is the first time that the Corporation is pushing forward the Urban Livelihood Mission, which primarily focuses on helping the urban poor.

Vasanti, from Namakkal, proudly displays a range of herbal products. The self-help group (SHG) consisting of 23 women, work with Dr. Sidha to make herbal oils, medicines, juices and other products. Vasanti’s son studies in a government college. “12 years ago, I was only a housewife. But the SHG really helped me. Now I work all year round to make herbal products for the company Yogam herbs,” she says.

This exhibition is held every year during Summer and Winter. It also held during the festive Diwali and Pongal seasons. “Our main motto is poverty alleviation,” says B Senthil Kumar, executive of State Supply and Marketing Society. The Corporation also invites rural farmers to set up organic markets in the same complex on the first weekend of every month.

Even though many urban women are displaying their products for the first time, there have been women from other villages who have been working on their craft for years. “Across the state, there are approximately a crore women who belong to SHGs”, says Kumar. Training and financial assistance is given to the SHGs. “We help in linking them with banks for credit facilities,” he adds.

The products are of two types – traditional products such as handloom saris, terra cotta items and food products and demand based products such as crafts, earrings and bags. For demand based products, the Corporation imparts training to the women, whereas, skills in traditional products are passed down from one generation to another.

The more experienced women teach the newcomers the nitty-grittys of the craft. Lily from Chennai derives pleasure from making and selling earrings, bracelets and chains. She is a member of SHG that created their own brand, “Humming Box.”

The group was started by Nancy Kalaiarasan, a housewife whose family was relocated to Perumbakkam from Thideer Nagar. She and 14 others formed the jewellery making self-help group, who receive training and aid from the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board. Some of the women are housewives and some, widows. They meet twice a week to make jewellery and borrow ideas from magazines and the internet to keep up with trends.

Exhibitions are organised at the district level, state level and the national level. “We are all going to Delhi for an exhibition next month,” says Vasanti, eager to travel outside Tamil Nadu for the first time.

By Ashna Butani

The children of Haji Public School, Breswana, a remote village in Jammu and Kashmir, have dreams that are accompanied with their own set of problems. The short film, Dreamers of Breswana directed by Praveen Pillay takes us to the dreamy lands of Breswana and into the lives of the children there. It is a story of how a village triumphs over its problems, with community efforts and crowdfunding.

Shrouded in mist, the Haji Public School is perched on a hill, 7500 ft above sea level. “I want to become a doctor because there are no doctors in my village, no one to help the poor people,” says young, starry-eyed Priya Sharma. The film begins with a sequence of students narrating their dreams.

This is followed by their greatest problem; the lack of electricity. The children’s enthusiastic embrace of learning is coupled with the lack of teaching methods that show them the outside world. The need for electricity is highlighted in the film through interactions with the school principal, teachers and local residents. The children are at risk of diseases and infections from the local firewood that aids them while studying.

Saura Mandala, a non-governmental organization (NGO) steps in to rid the village of this problem. The process of installing solar panels is shown through the short film. The film ends on a positive note, with the children eager to learn. They say that the use of presentations on laptops help them understand the world better. They are no longer cut off from the rest of the world.

There are two parts to the film, says the Director, Praveen Pillay. “The first part was shot to raise awareness about the issue and help the NGO Saura Mandala receive funding.” After the first part was showcased, the project received crowdfunding. The second part is a 9-minute long success story, a ray of hope for the village, and a source of inspiration to other such communities.  

Before shooting the film, Praveen taught at the school along with his wife, Madhuri. “The students showed us a lot of potential while we were teaching. One of the children, Rohit Sharma, had only started learning English three months earlier, he was quick to learn.” The students’ answers were so candid that it moved the team.

The shooting spanned 8 days. “My filmmaking career began in Breswana itself with Breswana’s Prateek,” says Praveen who has been working closely with the NGO Saura Mandala. The organisation was founded by Nagakarthik, who left his IT job to fulfil a greater purpose.

The organisation and the filmmaking team have indeed fulfilled their purpose. “I like this school, it is like my home,” said Humeera Banoo. Selected students will soon get the chance to venture out of Jammu and Kashmir, with the help of crowdfunding that raised Rs. 2,75,000. The trip will help students learn about places outside, while also encouraging other students to study hard and make it to the top of their class.

by Aadithyan J P

Chennai, Feb 22: The remaining sludge from the Kamarajar oil spill back in 2017, as a result of two oil tankers colliding, which released about 250 metric tonnes and severely damaged the Chennai coastline, is yet to be fully cleaned.

The KPL(Kamarajar Port Ltd.) have given the contract to the IOCL (Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.) to remove the slick and they are using the process of bio remediation to bring back the pollution to permissible limits.

 Bio remediation a chemical process that is used to treat water soil and other subsurface materials by introducing external organisms that are bio engineered for the targeted degradation of pollutants. The benefit of this process is that it uses no chemicals and thus after the whole process is completed it does not pollute the environment.

Before the intervention of the IOCL, the levels of pollution as per test results were 8 percent, and after their process of bio remediation it was lowered to levels between 1 and 0.5 percent. This process involves introducing a special kind of bacteria that has been formulated in labs.

According to S K Puri, Chief General Manager of Bio energy at Faridabad, who was on site to oversee all operations, “these microbes are used to clean up the spilt oil. They are released into the sludge and eats it up as it is their food. And after this process is over, they are rendered inert and die off without any sustenance. They are frozen in cubes and transported to the site and are allowed to be dissolved into the oil.”

 These organisms require ambient conditions to thrive and multiply, so the temperature cannot be neither too hot nor too cold. The ideal time to release them would be after the monsoon showers as the rain would dilute them. It is important that they are released in optimal conditions as they would breed faster and increase the rate at which the cleanup occurs, he added.

So far, we have cleaned about 184 metric tonnes and we had given the report, to the TN government who were very pleased. The whole process took about six months as we had released the microbes directly onto the affected areas in the open environment. We plan to treat the remaining slick in a closed vessel, in a process called confined bio remediation, where we can monitor and control the conditions, and since this is much more efficient it will only take about a month or so to clean up, said the GM.

Water and soil samples will be taken to gauge the levels of pollution of heavy metal and oil contamination and will be tested against the IS 10500 [Indian standard for drinking water quality].