Articles by Siddhant Kalra

Since the recent surge in COVID-positive cases, Bengaluru's health infrastructure has been overburdened. There are several reports of government agencies' delayed response and of patients not finding hospital beds in time. Vikram Rai, a member of the governing council of Bangalore Apartments' Federation (BAF), says, "The response from the BBMP is more and more delayed as the number of cases rises. Sometimes, it can take up to 2-3 days." BAF is an association of over 750 RWAs and AOAs (Apartment Owners Associations) in the city. So, when an apartment resident tests positive now, the onus of first response often falls…

In the one week between June 28 and July 5, Bengaluru's COVID-19 count more than tripled, with 7240 new cases. The surge in cases has overburdened the city's healthcare capacity, and as a result, there have been many reports of patients not finding hospital beds or treatment on time. This has led to panic and confusion about what one should do on testing COVID-positive. “The panic and fear of COVID is actually worse than COVID itself. That’s what we have to address before anything else,” says Dr Giridhara R Babu, Professor, Head-Lifecourse Epidemiology, Indian Institute of Public Health. Dr Giridhar…

Apartment RWAs have insisted on restrictions beyond government guidelines to deal with COVID, affecting residents and workers. Representational image: Ramesh Meda/(CC BY 2.0) "In general, I don't have a good relationship with my RWA, but COVID brought out their worst side," says Mukesh (name changed), a resident of Ozone Evergreen Apartments in Sarjapur Road. His apartment RWA is one of many in Bengaluru which have come up with their own rules during the pandemic. One of these rules was to restrict the entry of domestic workers into the premises. According to Mukesh, the RWA had promised to change this rule…

While providing much-needed relief from the heat, the monsoon also cripples Bengaluru with a whole lot of problems every year. Top among them are flooding of roads and clogging of stormwater drains. On June 1, the state government published a list of eight teams - one for each of the eight BBMP zones - to prepare for and respond to this year's monsoon. The teams have members from six departments - Forest, BESCOM, Fire and Emergency Services, BWSSB, BBMP and Traffic Police. The BBMP's Storm Water Drain (SWD) Department has also identified 211 vulnerable SWDs, which have to be worked…

Last week, the Department of Health and Family Welfare Services released new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for travellers entering Karnataka. The new SOPs offer many relaxations, particularly for inter-state and inter-district travellers. Inter-district travellers no longer need to be screened at the point of entry and don’t have to undergo institutional quarantine, while inter-state travellers have been given a way out of it. Here are the new rules for travelling to Karnataka during Lockdown 4.0: Inter-District Travel CategoryQuarantineTestingCategory 1 (Symptomatic)* Screened at point of origin (bus station, railway station)* Symptomatic passengers will be referred to fever clinicsDecided at fever clinicCategory…

On May 18, Minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal appealed to migrant workers to stay where they were, as the railways planned to double the number of Shramik Trains to 400 per day in two days. He also said that an additional 200 non-AC trains would be operational by June 1. While this increased capacity is a welcome sign, will it be enough to service Bengaluru's stranded workers? A large number of Bengaluru's workers are walking thousands of kilometres to their home states, as the efforts of the governments to arrange transportation has fallen short of the exploding demand. "The Labour…

Travel and quarantine rules have changed since the publishing of this article. Visit this page to find the updated rules. On Thursday, as the first Rajdhani from Delhi pulled into Majestic railway station, many travellers were taken by surprise when they were told that everyone on the train had to go through paid institutional quarantine in Bengaluru or go back to Delhi. Soon enough, 150-odd travellers sat on dharna and refused to go into quarantine, stating they hadn’t been informed about the rule beforehand. The Health and Family Welfare Services Department has released a series of orders, circulars and advisories…

Karnataka sold over Rs. 45 Crore worth of alcohol on the first day of the re-opening of standalone liquor shops on May 4. The figure surprised many and photographs of people waiting in long queues did the rounds on social media. However, the shock and awe proved to be short-lived, as the state made Rs. 197 Crore in sales, marking a 337% spike from the first day. Bengaluru too experienced a similar rush. Just one store in the city, Tonique, reportedly made over Rs. 4 Crore - or close to 10% of the state's total in sales just on the…

As the extended lockdown imposed to arrest the spread of COVID-19 starts to see graded relaxation, cities now have to plan how to open up non-hotspot zones. The latest guidelines from the Ministry of Home Affairs have already permitted, with effect from May 4th, the operation of buses and bus depots in green zones, but at 50% capacity only. With lesser restrictions on work and mobility, resuming public transportation services presents a seemingly contradictory challenge -- servicing an already massive passenger base, while at the same time implementing social distancing measures. Of all the public modes of transport, buses/trams are…

Distressing stories of the loss of both lives and livelihoods have been reported across the country during the month-long nationwide COVID lockdown. The other side of the story has been the efforts of NGOs, activists and ordinary citizens who had to plan and respond swiftly to help out as best as they could. Citizen Matters has launched the COVID Learning Series, surveying relief efforts as well as public services like medical care, waste management and transport in different cities to see what has worked where and why. We are collating this emerging knowledge in an effort to support civil society…