DT Next

An article with findings from CAG's 'Evaluating the efficacy of the Meendum Manjappai campaign' which was released during the inaugural event of Climate Action Month 2024. 

An article quoting CAG's study among college students to assess their environmental attitudes indicates that NSS and social media are students' two leading sources of information about the environment. The study aimed to analyse the effectiveness of the environmental course compulsory for all undergraduate courses.

Afroz, Researcher, Citizen consumer and civic Action Group, participated in the recent 'No Burn Chennai' event, and spoke about the ill-effects of incinerators. As incinerators are being increasingly promoted as a solution to plastic pollution, organisation at the event explained why burning plastic waste was a false, 'greenwashing' solution.

Our analysis of TNPCB official’s organisational structure, leadership dynamics, and operational capacity from 2017-2022 has been highlighted in DT Next. For a detailed understanding, we invite you to read the full report at bit.ly/TNPCBstatus.

In a recent circular , TANGEDCO allows consumers to procure meters from empanelled vendors for effecting new connections. Consumer organisations are concerned this could be a long term arrangement that could potentially burden consumers. K. Vishnu Mohan Rao, senior researcher at CAG, also points out that under such an arrangement, meter testing facilities could need additional manpower to ensure that testing times do not lead to delays for the consumer.

Released on February 20th, 2024, CAG's report, Fair Fares- towards gender inclusive public transport, analyses the impact of Tamil Nadu's free bus transport for women scheme.

Mr. Alby John, IAS, Managing Director of the MTC, speaking at the launch of CAG's report analysing TN's free bus scheme for women, mentioned several anticipated improvements to Chennai's bus fleet including an automated fare collection system, installation of high quality GPS on all buses, and a new passenger information app.

An article discussing findings from the CAG study which revealed that a significant majority of consumers knew of the single-use plastics ban. However, poor enforecement and therefore easy availability of SUPs lead to a reliance on plastics. 

Sumana Narayanan, CAG, comments on the fewer new car registrations in the State that it does not mean fewer new cars on the road. If discouraging private transport, and easing congestion is what the government aims to achieve, it needs to be done through strengthening the public transport network.

Bids have been invited for the procurement of modern passenger information systems in seven State Transport Undertakings (STU). Sumana, CAG, acknowledges that this is a good move but called for such a system to ensure information is communicated through various modes and not just focussed on the technologically-savvy citizen. In addition, information should be updated in real-time. A CAG study established that passengers generally find public transport information through official mediums difficult to access, and not always reliable.