Mayor directs beautification of Tondiarpet
The Hindu
Officials told to launch the biomining project at Kodungaiyur
Mayor R. Priya on Thursday reviewed the progress of infrastructure projects and welfare measures in Tondiarpet zone at a meeting on Thursday and asked the officials to focus on beautification of such zones in north Chennai.
The Mayor directed the officials to improve public health and school education in north Chennai. She directed the officials to launch the biomining project in Kodungaiyur to reduce pollution in the zone.
Pointing to the pollution in many neighbourhoods of Tondiarpet zone, the Mayor said steps would be taken to improve conservancy, do up the walls with paintings and beautify the streets.
Several relatives of women councillors entered the hall even as the meeting was about begin. However, the Mayor asked them to leave the hall. The review meeting began after all the relatives of the councillors left the hall.
“Civic issues were discussed, including the need to start biomining of Kodungaiyur dump. A detailed project report is being prepared for biomining and processing of dry waste and wet waste in Kodungaiyur for an estimate of ₹600 crore for a multi-year period. In two months, bids will be invited. In addition to that, a mass cleaning programme will be taken up on alternate Saturdays,” said Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi.
“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.