Chennai relives Corbusier magic

Eyes in Chennai, glued to Le Corbusier’s marvels in Chandigarh.

A rare photo exhibition on the legendary French architect in Chennai offered viewers a glimpse into his works that could soon be on Unesco’s list of World Heritage Buildings.

Some of his specimens in Chandigarh, almost synonymous with Corbusier, could enter the hall of fame. The high court, Assembly and the secretariat are among those that stand a good chance of making the grade.

The French government wants to include Chandigarh and other sites designed by Corbusier, said Sukanya Ramanujan and Lorene Durret of Alliance Francaise, where the photo exhibition has been organised.

Corbusier, ironically, didn’t get much recognition at home when he was alive. But in India, where Jawaharlal Nehru asked him to design Chandigarh as a “symbol of post-Independence India’s faith in the future”, the architect’s prowess has always inspired awe. The Chandigarh specimens are among the 23 major works of Corbusier in the world that have been recommended for inclusion in the heritage roster.

Safety alarm on women

Andhra Pradesh isn’t an oasis of safety for women but a fresh set of figures paints a picture darker than most had expected.

In all, 19,909 cases of crime against women were registered in 2007, a rise of 13 per cent over the previous year’s figure of 17,646.

Rapes, murders, dowry deaths, harassment and kidnapping are included in the figures.

Cases of physical assault went up to 1,026 from 1,006 in the same period. This covered the incident involving Ayesha Meera, the BPharma student raped and murdered in her Vijayawada hostel last December.

The state crime records bureau said harassment cases went up to 9,660 from 8,069. The findings have come as a grim reminder to police, whose attention has been focused on high-profile terror cases like the serial blasts of last year.

Power from trash pile

There is power in rubbish — at least that is what a Delhi civic body has set out to achieve.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is planning gas plants in landfills —stretches where garbage from across the city is dumped — to generate electricity.

Three such dumps, Okhla, Bhalaswa and Ghazipur, have been spotted for such a venture, standing committee chairman Vijender Gupta said recently.

Other examples have been cited. “California has been generating electricity from methane gas for 14 to 15 years,” the civic body’s additional commissioner, Naresh Kumar, said.

World Bank experts from Canada are expected to survey the three sites, for possible funding, and hand in their report within nine months, Kumar said.

Another such site, a 34-acre stretch in the Jaitpur-Badarpur area, has been identified for the gas plant, he said .

A door-to-door collection drive will be launched in some areas to collect garbage and dump it at the site where the gas plants will be set up.

Class action

Little can be done to regulate Mumbai’s mushrooming private coaching classes, the government told the high court last week.

The authorities threw up their hands, saying they couldn’t frame rules or guidelines for these institutes. Peeved at the state’s stance, judges Bilal Nazki and Sharad Bobde said the judiciary “would have to do something” if the government couldn’t.

The court was hearing a public interest plea filed by an NGO, Forum for Fairness in Higher Education, which argued that such unregulated institutes were fleecing students.

DELHI: Yasin Khan’s Kyunki Sasur Bhi Kabhi Damad Tha is a take on the K-serials but it also offers an insight into a father’s protective nature when it comes to his daughter. Watch the play this Friday at Little Theatre Group Auditorium, Copernicus Marg. Shows at 4pm and 7pm.