It’s stocktaking time for Kochi Corporation
The Hindu
Claims and counterclaims by ruling LDF and opposition UDF over civic body’s performance in 2021
The Left Democratic Front (LDF), which governs the Kochi Corporation, rates 2021 as a year of all-round success despite lacking a clear majority, while the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the opposition cannot disagree more.
The Hindu spoke to Mayor M. Anilkumar and opposition leader Antony Kureethara on how the Corporation fared this year. While Mr. Kureethara gave the Corporation a dismal two out of ten marks, Mr. Anilkumar said that though he was satisfied with the performance despite the challenges posed by the pandemic and lack of a clear majority, he would rather leave the rating to people before adding that people probably gave their verdict clear in the Gandhi Nagar by-election where the LDF enhanced its victory margin to over 700 votes.
Aasheesh Pittie says birdwatching is not very unlike hunting, except that nothing is killed. “You track… you want to follow the bird… see it,” he says about this activity that he has pursued for nearly fifty years. Pittie, the editor of the ornithological journal Indian Birds, author of many classic reference books about birds and most recently, a collection of bird essays titled The Living Air: Pleasures of Birds and Birdwatching, was speaking at an event organised by the Archives of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS).