Citizens' Rights and Duties

Featured Articles
July 7, 2022
Slum land rights: A necessity for success of PMAY
PMAY needs policy commitment to rehabilitate slums in small and medium cities of Gujarat
Need for legal framework for land rights in small and medium cities of Gujarat under PMAY (Image: Homes in the City)
December 6, 2019
Holistic approach needed to clean the Ganga
A report by the India Rivers Forum highlights the need to focus further than the main stem of the Ganga river.
Distant snow clad mountains, the smaller hills and the Ganga river (Image: Srimoyee Banerjee, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
November 21, 2019
Jaipur’s wastewater conundrum
A report by NIUA brings to light the chinks in Jaipur's sewage system and suggests some solutions.
Routine check done by the sewage treatment plant staff in Delawas, Jaipur. The plant is part of the ADB best practices projects list. (Image: Asian Development Bank, Flickr Commons)
November 18, 2019
Manual scavenging persists in India due to weak enforcement of laws
News this week
manual_scavengers
November 18, 2019
BWSSB’s workforce woefully inadequate, says Chairman Tushar Girinath
Bangalore's water utility is understaffed, under financed and unable to service the city's water needs.
Image credit: Citizen Matters
November 15, 2019
When the sewers get blocked: sanitation labour in urban India
On World Toilet Day, we bring to light the labour of India’s sewer workers - those who do the unclean work that a Clean India relies on.
Photo credit: Sharada Prasad
Piped water scheme changes the lives of Odisha villagers
Bandhabhuin village went from having 1 handpump for 400 people to 7, toilet facilities in 55% of the houses and had an overall improvement in its social and economic fabric.
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 19 Sep, 2015 05:55 PM

In India, about Rs.70,000 crore 
Anup Munda showing his functional toilet at Bandha Bhuin
Bisalpur revisited--10 years after protesters were shot, killing 5
Despite many plans, neither rural nor urban are water secure thanks to the Bisalpur Dam since it was constructed in 2007.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 10 Sep, 2015 01:20 PM

Ten years ago five farmers were shot protesting the diversion of waters from Bisalpur dam to Jaipur city, located about 130 kms away.
Kisan Sewa Samiti, Chaksu struggling for drinking water allocation from Bisalpur dam (Source: CECODECON)
Water problems with quality and access plague Sambalpur, Odisha
Groundwater in Talabeda village in Sambalpur, Odisha has high concentrations of iron but more urgently, its water supply system is dysfunctional for the last 2 weeks due to electricity issues.
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 27 Aug, 2015 04:00 PM

It's been more than 15 days and the drinking water crisis in Talabeda village in Sambalpur, Odisha is yet to be addressed. The water supply system of the village collapsed due to a fault in the transformer located within the premises of the Talabeda pump house, and no one has the time to fix this and restart the water supply system. 
The colour of the tiles around the public stand-post at Talabeda, Odisha have changed from white to red due to iron contamination.
The curious case of Kolkata's missing water bodies
The city which has close to 5000 water bodies has lost 44% in the last two decades, says Mohit Ray of Vasundhara, a group working on environmental and human rights issues in an interview.
Mohit Ray
Posted on 25 Aug, 2015 12:26 PM

Mohit Ray of Vasundhara has written two books--"Five Thousand Mirrors: The Water Bodies of Kolkata”
Bhukailash - a water body in Kolkata; Image: Mohit Ray
Colourful fabrics lead to murky waters
The textile printing cluster at Sanganer near Jaipur presents a Catch-22 situation on the right to pollution free water versus the right to livelihoods.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 17 Aug, 2015 09:55 PM

Amanishah nallah flowing through Sanganer, a town located 15 kms from Jaipur, is getting murkier by the day as the the textile hand printing industry in the area is getting more prosperous.
Bleaching, dyeing and printing of cottons causes water pollution at Sanganer
Delhi’s Bhalaswa landfill contaminates groundwater
The landfill, which was supposed to be shut down in 2010 once the trash reached a height of 22m still remains functional at a height of 41m, polluting groundwater and areas around it.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 17 Aug, 2015 09:51 PM

With more than 8360 tons of trash created daily in Delhi, the city has three trash pile sites at Bhalaswa, Ghazipur and Okhla. In these sites technically known as landfills, garbage is buried between layers of earth to build up low-lying lands.
Pushpa has been leading the struggle of Bhalaswa residents to clean water
The nonexistent bridge in Punjab
At Punjab's Mand island, not many children go to school and pregnant women deliver at the river bank -- all because there is no bridge connecting it to the mainland.
Manu Moudgil
Posted on 10 Aug, 2015 12:14 PM

Bakshish Singh once had 13 acres of farmland; now he only has one. He lost the rest in 2013 when the Beas river changed its course and started flowing near his house. Bakshish lives at Rampur Gaura village in Kapurthala district of Punjab, the state generally known for good roads, urbanised villages and wealthy farmers.
The only connection of the island with mainland is through a pontoon bridge which the Public Works Department removes as the water level rises during monsoon.
Nagpur Municipal Corporation in troubled waters
Nagpur's woes due to water privatisation aren't unique. More than 54 private sector participation projects across the globe are in the same boat.
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 05 Aug, 2015 09:41 AM

The Maharashtra State Accountant General (AG) recently exposed the hidden agenda of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and its so-called best Public-Private Partnership model with regards to Nagpur's water supply.
No 24x7 water supply for Nagpur
Shivaji and Sardar Vallabhai Patel: Bigger than their proposed statues
Two statues of two great leaders are to be built inside the Narmada river and the Arabian sea. While we know how much they will cost the exchequer, how much will they cost the environment?
Sabita Kaushal
Posted on 31 Jul, 2015 09:05 AM

What do these two iconic figures -- Shivaji, the great Maratha leader and Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the ‘Iron Man of India’ -- have most in common? While one might think that it was their fight for the freedom of their motherland, albeit at different times, that is not all.
Shivaji & Sardar Patel to be immortalised as statues (Source: Wikipedia & www.statueofunity.in)
Water and the Missile Man
What did the late president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam's think about water conservation, interlinking of rivers and the future of a world without water? Read on.
Rekha Raghunathan
Posted on 28 Jul, 2015 01:32 PM

Dr. Kalam is no more but he lives on in the hearts of many through his quotes, beliefs, speeches and his acclaimed book India 2020: A Vision for the New Millenium among many others. 
The late APJ Abdul Kalam at the International Book Fair, Trivandrum, 2014
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