Mathews Chiran

Women candidates for elections to the reserved ward councillor posts of two Dhaka city corporations don’t just want to be “ornamental councillors”; they want to make the city safer for women and have demanded a balance of power between them and their male counterparts so that they can serve people properly.

Exercise your franchise! Come to the polling centres overcoming all obstacles and vote!

Speeding up mosquito control activities, proper waste management, repairing roads and solving waterlogging problems -- these are the main issues residents of newly-added wards expect to be solved by their mayor.

While the two Dhaka city corporations often get flak for delay in development and other works or lacking in implementation of plans, a lot of those criticisms would sound rather harsh when one considers that there have been no new recruitment to the city corporations in over eight years -- since Dhaka City Corporation was split in two in 2011 -- and a large number of posts remain vacant.

Every day at the break of dawn, Albert Mrong sets out from home on his bicycle with a bag full of medicines. He rides over the uneven terrain of Madhupur -- surrounded by banana orchards -- stopping at homes of worried villagers and giving them necessary vaccines and antidote for their cattle.

With an aim to help pedestrians cross an intersection safely and reduce risks of accidents, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) in October installed “push button time countdown” signal systems on a pilot basis in two of its areas.

On one side of a road that goes to Bawnia through Dolipara in Uttara, there’s a runway for planes to land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. This restricted area is demarcated with a tall-wire fence, from which people often look through to see airplanes come and go.

Every month, councillors of Dhaka North City Corporation hold a meeting at Nagar Bhaban in Gulshan to discuss various issues of their wards. The meetings are headed by DNCC Mayor Md Atiqul Islam.

In the concrete jungle that is Dhaka, any sight of greenery is a respite for the senses. While household gardening continues to be a popular hobby among residents of the city, office spaces and banks are nowadays often seen adorned with plants, both indoor and outdoor kinds.

Despite the growing popularity of cycling as means of commuting, exercise and a recreational activity, even the most optimistic would not rank Dhaka as a cyclist-friendly city.

Farmgate hardly requires an introduction. Every day, vehicles of various shapes and size stop haphazardly to pick up or drop off passengers in the area, while people remain busy walking in all directions or rushing through or shoving each other to go about their destinations.

A long-awaited footbridge -- promised by Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Atiqul Islam himself following the tragic death of a youth under a bus on the road -- has been abruptly closed down within a week of opening it to public.

Bangladesh National Zoo authorities on Friday handed over two animals from its collection to a citizen for adoption, one of which it has claimed was a donation from one of the most renowned artists in the country’s history. It naturally begs the question -- why?

In the last few years, Dhaka has consistently ranked as one of the least liveable cities in the world, and while there are many reasons behind that, there is one that does not get enough attention: noise pollution.

As the two city corporations grapple with the dengue outbreak in the capital, the need to use effective insecticides has made the headlines over the last few weeks. However, finding the right mosquitocide requires testing, and field-testing requires standardised samples of mosquitoes.

For more than two years, residents of Madhya Badda have been enduring water crisis. The situation persists particularly in Post Office Road area, one of the densely populated parts of Badda, where over 2,000 people live.

From outside, the place does not look much -- a small shop, around 7.5 feet by 5 feet, where hardly three-four persons can fit at a time. It may be small, but this record store has a lot of heart to it.

Footbridges are common in Dhaka, making the lives of pedestrians easier in a city with maddening traffic.

With major fire incidents jolting the capital in recent months, citizens and businesspeople are taking initiatives to address fire safety. And while the efforts are visible, they may not be adequate.

Though footpaths are intended for use by pedestrians, the one next to the road between Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) rail crossing and Hatirjheel is being used for everything else except for the sole reason it was constructed.