Mahesh Vijapurkar
Read biographyMahesh Vijapurkar likes to take a worm’s eye-view of issues – that is, from the common man’s perspective. He was a journalist with The Indian Express and then The Hindu and now potters around with human development and urban issues.
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Rural schemes: re-bundling is good, but not good enough
One thing that went largely unnoticed in Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s Budget is the announcement that the 173 schemes and programmes run from New Delhi for the poor through the state governments, or part financed from there, would be cut to 70. The Centre would apparently be whittling them down #Budget 2013 #Drought #P. Chidambaram #Rural development
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Naming Bhandara rape victims: Mr Shinde goofs up… again
A government claiming to be sensitive to issues of crimes against women could not have goofed up worse. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde outdid himself when he made a statement in the Rajya Sabha today in which he named the three minor victims who were raped, killed and thrown into a #Arun Jaitley #Bhandara rape case #Crimes against women #Home Minister #Sushilkumar Shinde #ThatsJustWrong
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Why India can’t have a uniform street vending law
Going by what Ajay Maken, minister for housing and poverty alleviation says, a street vending law will be in place in the next few months. The budget session of parliament will engage itself towards its enactment and the government, along with politicians, social science academics, a section of civil society, #Ajay Maken #ConnectTheDots #Street hawking #Street Vendors #Supreme Court
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Reality check: Train mows down two kids as Bansal reads Railway budget
Presenting the 2013-14 Indian Railways budget, minister Pawan Kumar Bansal made a point: he would strive towards a zero-accident situation. Moments after the budget was read, CNN-IBN started its next bulletin with the opening ‘breaking news’. A mob of agitated locals burnt down a station, Gulabgunj, in Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha region #Indian Railways #rail safety #RailBudget2013 #ThatsJustWrong
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Clean toilets and more: What travellers want from Rail Budget 2013
As a child, my annual Secunderabad-Madras train journey was really something. There were no reservations, you had to sit on hard wooden benches and the luggage rack served as a sleeper for the adroit. People spread out their hold-alls between the rows of seats, the hold-all having a thin mattress #Indian Railways #Pawan Bansal #Rail Budget 2013 #RailBudget2013
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Bandh: When CPI courted the Shiv Sena
The Shiv Sena has no political friends, except the Bharatiya Janata Party and now, the Ramdas Athavale-led Republican Party of India. So when a top Communist Party of India leader, Gurudas Dasgupta, visits Uddhav Thackeray, the Sena chief, to ensure the party’s participation in the 48-hour bandh called by a #Bandh #CPM #Gurudas Dasgupta #PoliticalPlay #Shiv Sena
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City and security: What security are we talking about?
As a resident of a cooperative housing society, how secure are you? If the uniformed security guard is the cause for your comfort, you had better re-examine your assessment because what you get is not security. At least, in most cases, not just enough. You just get men in uniform. Period. The #Cooperative housing society #InMyOpinion #Security guard
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Big, fat political weddings are also for TRPs
Wednesday was a big day in Chiplun, the town on the banks of River Vashishti, on the Mumbai-Goa road, some 350 km from Mumbai. Minister of State for Urban Development, Bhaskar Jadhav’s son, Samir, and also his daughter, Kanchan, were married off. What made the event noteworthy to grab a #Chhagan Bhujbal #HowThisWorks #Nitin Gadkari #Weddings
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By spurning Uddhav, Raj Thackeray throws open Maharashtra polls
Raj Thackeray’s huge public rally in Kolhapur on Tuesday evening are notable for several reasons. One, he refused to have any truck with his cousin, Uddhav; two, he would go forward alone; three, his plank would be anti-migrant to bolster the pro-local sentiments; and four, his opposition to a memorial #Chhatrapati Shivaji #HowThisWorks #MNS #Raj Thackeray #Shiv Sena #Uddhav Thackeray
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Mumbai’s hawkers: We don’t even know how to deal with them
Hawkers are not new to Mumbai nor are the slums. They are in fact distinct features of the city to the extent that hawkers’ numbers are only an estimate despite their being ubiquitous. The Census in the past has shown that six out of ten Mumbai residents live in its #ConnectTheDots #Hill Road #Mumbai hawkers #Mumbai slums