Archives - Question of Cities

The Musi was, and is, Hyderabad’s heritage and culture

The story of the Musi is woven with that of the city. It, historically, had a riverfront with grand palaces, shamshaan ghats, Sati mounds, dhobi ghats, slums, and held immense cultural and historical significance. Bathukamma, the flower festival, was celebrated…

‘We want the Musi cleaned but without displacing the people’

Once a lifeline of the city of Hyderabad, the Musi was home to thousands of people – mostly economically backward -- living along its banks. The increasing pollution threatened their well-being; the demolitions, their very existence. While the unauthorised constructions…

Delhi owes the Yamuna an ecologically-sound river-led city plan

The deterioration and shrinking of the Yamuna in Delhi have worsened over the decades despite thousands of crores spent. Constructions on its floodplains were ignored earlier; now, the Yamuna Action Plan itself includes riverfront development with concretisation even as long-time…

‘The Yamuna is a living and breathing thing. We are systematically killing it’

Although India’s vision of a river was historically been influenced by the British, urban plans in contemporary India too do not have an ecological perspective, say Dr Reema Bhatia and Meeta Kumar in this interview. Their research paper ‘Urbanising a…

The Yamuna: Memoir of
a dying river

Nikeita Saraf, a Thane-based architect and urban practitioner, works as illustrator and writer with Question of Cities. Through her academic years at School of Environment and Architecture, and later as Urban Fellow at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements…

‘The government got votes from here, now claims the settlement is illegal’

What happens when a river’s relationships with people closest to it are broken and all talk of the river is reduced to drains and development, barrages and budgets? The people are invisibilised like the forgotten farmers and evicted slum dwellers…

The relentless fighters who cycle, campaign and rally to save Yamuna

Pankaj Kumar quit his job to work 24x7 for a clean Yamuna. Vikrant Tongad decided he would not be a silent spectator to the pollution in the river. Manu Bhatnagar chalked out a water policy with nature-based solutions. Nishant Pawar…

Why we should worry about the narrative of development

Mumbai voted to send 227 corporators to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation but the election campaign did not pivot on governance. Instead, it was all about delivering development. This, in recent years, means gleaming high-rises as the city’s totems, exclusive gated…

Bengaluru: A step forward or two steps backslide in urban governance?

Amid opposition, Bengaluru’s municipal corporation was split into five, ostensibly to improve service delivery and expedite development. However, significant city-making powers – planning, executing development projects, controlling finance – lie with their command centre, the Greater Bengaluru Authority, ruled by…

Split or reunified, Delhi’s municipal corporation has poor governance, low finances

Urban governance in the national capital has been through different formats, explains multimedia journalist Ankita Dhar Karmakar. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi was split into three in 2011, on the basis of reports, to decentralise and facilitate development. But the…