murali772's blog

Report on 'Suvarna Bengaluru Pranalike'

20 March 2010 - 5:28pm — murali772

This was organised by Janaagraha's Jaagte Raho campaign at 6 PM on Friday, the 19th Mar, at the Town Hall, Bengaluru, in the background of the BBMP elections being held on the coming Sunday (28th March,'10)

On infrastructure
From Mr R V Deshpande of Congress to Ms Shabha Karandlaje to Mr Narayanaswamy of JD(S), all made claims of how they were responsible for building up the infrastructure for the city - from the Hebbal fly-over to the K R Puram cable-stayed fly-over, to the signal-free corridors, etc, etc. Towards the end, when a question raised by a participant as to 'where the pedestrian came into view in all of these', was put to them, suddenly, each made a u-turn and started talking about how they plan to make the city totally pedestrian and cycle friendly.

Well, to symbolise the entire polity's commitment to this changed approach, can a consensus be possibly arrived at to demolish the totally useless National College fly-over, apart from of course dropping the Tagore circle underpass and such useless projects?

On corruption

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Padmanabhanagar doomed - rest of Bengaluru too?

20 March 2010 - 2:05pm — murali772

The following is the report by Sri N S Mukunda, Convener of Abhyudaya, a federation of RWAs in Padmanabhanagar, on the debate they organised between the BBMP Corporator candidates on 19th March. The prospects for the ward look pathetic. And, like Mr Mukunda has pointed out "I am sure that the expecrience is similar except in the degree of disappointment in other constituencies as well", and offered the possible way out as "like many of our colleaguews have done in this election only jump into the fray and contest and try to win - time we start thinking of far beyond this tokenism".

We from Abhyudya in ward 182 Padmanabhanagar, had a debate with the candidates of Congress (Sri Murali), JD(S) (Sri Anjanappa). The BJP candidate Sri L Srinivasa, the ex corporator did not turn up, in spite of being invited. The debate took place yesterday evening at 5.30 PM and went on till 7.15 PM.

Protecting trees - Indiranagar

17 March 2010 - 5:25pm — murali772

Knowing me to be a tree lover, members of the local coomunity keep calling asking to know as to what is to be done when they notice trees being felled in their neighborhood, the latest being the above massacre of 4 full-grown trees (very similar to the one that has been spared - seen at the extreme right of the picture) on the 100 ft road in Indiranagar (just North of the pedestrian over-bridge at the end of the fly-over).

Now, if the process is still under way when you come upon it, what you need to do is detailed in the ESG web-site, which may be accessed here. I have myself followed this a couple of times, and succeeded in limiting the damage considerably.

But, if the damage has already occured, like in the above instance, you could perhaps file a query under the RTI Act, on the lines of the one I am going to be filing pertaining to the instant case, as below, and forward a copy to ESG.

Private Universities

13 March 2010 - 6:32pm — murali772

Amid protests and dharna from the opposition Congress and the JD(S), the Legislative Assembly on Friday adopted the Azim Premji University Bill, 2010, thus paving the way for the state’s first private university aimed at improving the quality of primary and higher education by providing training to teachers. The Alliance University Bill, 2010, another private university Bill, was also passed in the Assembly.

Both the Bills were adopted through the voice vote as the opposition parties staged a dharna in the well of the House, insisting on a joint select committee (JSC) of the house for a thorough deliberation on the Bill before getting it passed by the legislature. Opposition leader in the Assembly expressed fears that the passage of the Bill would open the floodgate for private universities in the absence of any set of regulations to govern them. Instead of placing a Bill for an individual university, the government should bring in a comprehensive private university Bill while listing out elaborate guidelines, they demanded.

Step-by-step privatisation of Air India likely

10 March 2010 - 1:33pm — murali772

Faced with accumulated losses of Rs 7,200 crore, national carrier Air India's deteriorating condition has forced the government to push for privatisation of the carrier. While the UPA government does not favour strategic sale, the civil aviation ministry and the Air India management are likely to consider a piecemeal approach to privatisation.

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Fixing the great mistake

8 March 2010 - 4:17pm — murali772

"Fixing the Great Mistake" is a new Streetfilms series that examines what went wrong in the early part of the 20th Century, when our cities began catering to the automobile, and how those decisions continue to affect our lives today.

Liberalize the railways

25 February 2010 - 12:07pm — murali772

The Indian railway system continues to be in a crisis since it has kept the winds of liberalization at bay, said Lok Satta Party President Dr Jayaprakash Narayan said here today. When Delhi let go its stranglehold on airports and sea ports and permitted States to promote them, the country has witnessed a dramatic growth in the two sectors.

EC/ SEC - symbol of incompetence, incapacity, apathy, lack of accountability, all put together

16 February 2010 - 11:38pm — murali772

During the Koramangala SmartVote exercise, this is what the members chanced upon "We introduced the software mainly to enable voters to start an easy search for their names on the voter lists online. However, in the process, we found that a number of names were exactly replicated.

Railways to privatize

9 February 2010 - 10:57am — murali772

Attempting an image makeover after opposing most major projects in her home state of West Bengal, railway minister Mamata Banerjee seemed to be going over the top in a bid to privatize every sector of the Indian Railways.

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Flag-pole politics

8 February 2010 - 5:18pm — murali772

Third party to monitor civic works

8 February 2010 - 1:49pm — murali772

In order to ensure quality and speedy implementation of the works undertaken by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the civic body has hired a third party at a cost of over Rs 4 crore. Civil Aid Techno Clinic Pvt Limited has been chosen by the BBMP to monitor all projects undertaken by it in the city.

Houses for slum dwellers by Dec 2010

5 February 2010 - 2:42pm — murali772

Speaking after laying the foundation stone for construction of 1,500 houses in the Ragigudda slum at JP Nagar 2nd phase, the Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said, “All 570 slums in the City will be rehabilitated under the JNNURM-BSUP scheme by Dec 2010 to make Bangalore a slum-free City".

Right model from the left?

2 February 2010 - 6:48pm — murali772

When even die-hard Socialists seem to be reconciled to letting perennially sick public sector units (PSUs) being either privatised or left to waste away, Kerala is showing another way. The state is not just propping up haemorrhaging PSUs but is pulling them out of the red; some are even making decent profits.

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Don’t teach English to your children in Class I

31 January 2010 - 9:22am — murali772

Global research shows that children should learn reading and writing in their mother tongue first. Only after they can read fluently at a minimum of 45-60 words per minute can they absorb what they are reading. Such fluency is most easily achieved in the mother tongue. Once that is established, learning a second language becomes much easier.

English as social leveller

20 January 2010 - 12:44pm — murali772

The Supreme Court may have touted English as the flagbearer of knowledge economy but the role of the Queen's language as a "social leveller" is witnessing a renewed push for English education among weaker sections.