Citizens' Rights and Duties

Featured Articles
July 7, 2022 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 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 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 Bangalore's water utility is understaffed, under financed and unable to service the city's water needs.
Image credit: Citizen Matters
November 15, 2019 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
Deepor beel: Entangled in a net of dangers
Banning fishing in the beel has not only affected the sustenance of the Keot fishing community in Guwahati but it is also threatening the beel's very existence. Posted on 25 Mar, 2014 08:52 PM

“Posua botah”, he said. “The wind is blowing from the west now so we cannot take you to the beel to show you how we catch fish. This wind cleans the water and we won’t get fish. 'Bhatial botah', when the wind blows from the east, the water turns muddy and the fish come up to the surface to breathe. That’s the best time to fish”, he explained.

Deepor Beel awaits a fresh gush of life
Fatehabad - Another Fukushima?
Nuclear plants are usually located near oceans or rivers in order to have access to ample water for cooling but not the plant at Fatehabad. It is India's largest and could be its most dangerous too. Posted on 25 Mar, 2014 08:14 PM

National Highway 10 passes through Badophal, a village in Fatehabad district of Haryana. The highway is lined by a tiny market and a point where several jeeps start and terminate. These jeeps are headed to Gorakhpur village, some 15 kms away via Kajal Heri, another village en route.

Gorakhpur nuclear power plant site
Floods despite dams
In his bi-lingual booklet titled 'Floods despite dams' ('Barh to phir bhi aayegi'), Dinesh Mishra explodes the myth of embankments and hopes that the issue of floods will be widely debated. Posted on 23 Mar, 2014 10:42 PM

Floods in Bihar have acquired menacing proportions following the embanking of its rivers, which has led to severe dislocations in the society. Estimates suggest that 70% of the population in north Bihar lives under the recurring threat of flood devastation (1). The 2013 floods affected more than 5.9 million people in 3768 villages (2).

Floods disrupt life in Bihar
Cleaning up: From Canada to Kharaudi
NRIs from Punjab have funded sanitation and development initiatives in their native villages, but this model of development is not without its share of hurdles. Posted on 23 Mar, 2014 10:20 PM

In 2003, President Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam visited a small village in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab. Kharaudi had done something he thought others could emulate.

Sewerage work at a project village
Technology and public awareness to combat climate change
Using community radio, messages about adapting to climate change and methods to do it were communicated to farmers in Bundelkhand. Posted on 16 Mar, 2014 10:30 PM

In Jhansi, Bundelkhand farmers experience great uncertainties in agriculture due to erratic rainfall. Covering 13 districts of southwest Uttar Pradesh and Northern Madhya Pradesh with a population of approximately 21 million, Bundelkhand is a typical semi-arid region.  Around 83% of the area is rural and more than one third of the households are considered to be below the poverty line.

Crops appropriate to deal with climate change
Princely' private ponds
The 'Apna Talab Abhiyaan' programme promotes the building of private talabs on peoples' lands to help improve groundwater recharge in Bundelkhand. Posted on 07 Mar, 2014 10:14 AM

Charkhari, a princely state of India in the colonial period was once a beautiful settlement founded by Saurabh Singh Bundela, a Rajput King. Acceded to India post-Independence, the town is now located in Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh. The place was home to intricate water management systems in the past.

A talab in the fort city of Charkhari
Pesticide 'thali'
A 2010 study by Consumer Voice found that Delhi's fruits and vegetables contain high levels of pesticide residue. Despite the high court getting involved, not much has changed since. Posted on 20 Jan, 2014 09:39 AM

One doesn't have to look far to find pesticide contamination in food and water in India.

Toxins are used as ripening agents in vegetables
Separated by a spring
Two villages used the same spring as their source of water for generations but over time, it divided rather than unite them. What caused it and was it ever resolved? Posted on 06 Jan, 2014 10:02 AM

Numerous small villages dot the Himalayas. These villages obtain water from springs that are in their turn supplied by small aquifers. Due to the complex folded nature of the rocks that make up the mountains, the area from which these aquifers receive their water may be at some distance away from the actual spring.

Bedu Naula, in Uttarakhand
Drilling the hills to devastation
Thirty hydroelectric projects have been planned in Kinnaur district, Himachal Pradesh. There is an immense cost to the environment and to the residents but the government isn't letting up. Posted on 08 Dec, 2013 10:50 PM

Clear blue skies, natural springs and glacial peaks-tranquility. Falling stones, landslides and debris-chaos! Kinnaur, located on  the northeastern side of Himachal Pradesh, lets you experience both. It falls in seismic zones IV and V, which means it runs the the risk of damaging and destructive earthquakes.

100 MW Tidong-I project, Kinnaur HP
Stellar, yet inadequate
Manipal University has a comprehensive environment management programme but its water conservation efforts could be better. Involving students could give it the extra punch it needs. Posted on 08 Dec, 2013 10:11 PM

Manipal University has a well-thought out, multi-pronged approach towards reducing its environmental footprint. This includes a comprehensive waste management policy and a programme to reduce energy consumption.

Manipal University campus, Manipal
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