murali772's blog

Towards a level playing field regime?

12 December 2013 - 3:48pm — murali772

India’s competition watchdog has fined Coal India Ltd (CIL) and three of its subsidiaries a combined Rs.1,773 crore for misusing their position as monopoly suppliers of coal to fix prices and supply poor-quality coal, and do so on conditions that favoured them over the buyers. The specific charges against Coal India, the first state-run company to be fined by the Comp

Exemplary collaborative effort

6 December 2013 - 7:31pm — murali772

The following is the text of a mail posted on the "saveKoramangala" yahoo-group by Mr Nitin Seshadri, Sec, Koramangala 3rd block assn, says it all.

Koramangala's latest challenge - Hosur road underpasses

5 December 2013 - 10:18pm — murali772

After the "Sarjapur road signal-free corridor" fiasco (check here), where, perhaps for the first time in the history of the city, the road was ordered to be restored to its original condition, after considerable civil work had already progressed, one would have thought that the powers be

RTO absurdity, nay criminality

2 December 2013 - 3:36pm — murali772

Hundreds of Bangalore-bound tourists from Tamil Nadu were stranded for hours on Sunday when taxi operators resorted to a snap strike at the check-post, near Hosur.

Neta/ Babu car travels the cause of all that is rotten in the city

25 November 2013 - 5:58pm — murali772

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy blamed engineers and officials of the BBMP for the poor progress in waste management. “BBMP officials do not seem to see anything. The engineers and joint commissioners sit in their cars and travel through the city but they do not see the garbage on the roads or problems of citizens,” he said.

Grab the opportunity to offload Air-India

20 November 2013 - 6:35pm — murali772

Industry leader Ratan Tata today expressed interest in the possibility of privatisation of Air India, saying he would be very happy to look at it whenever it happened. "As an when it happens, we would be very happy to look at it," the Chairman Emeritus of the Tata Group said when asked whether he would be interested if Air India was privatised.

Public assets or perpetual burdens?

20 November 2013 - 4:29pm — murali772

Babus and public sector executives may have to surrender phones and broadband connections from private operators such as Airtel and Vodafone and shift to the networks of state-owned MTNL and BSNL as part of the government's plan to improve the finances of the two PSUs.

Bangalore Metropolitan Committee draft rules

19 November 2013 - 5:55pm — murali772

The draft of the Bangalore Metropolitan Committee rules dt 7th Nov, 2013 is accessible here.

Come out and claim the road

14 November 2013 - 4:08pm — murali772

Cycling and walking are difficult not just because of poor planning. It is also because of the mindset that only those who move in a car have status and road rights. Anyone who walks or cycles is considered poor, wretched and destined to be marginalised, if not obliterated. - - - This is what must change.

Neta's absurdities

3 November 2013 - 1:56pm — murali772

Reading what I thought were absurd comments, made by certain neta's following the Mahboobnagar bus mishap, I thought I'll start this blog where I'll list these, as also any that I come upon in future:

1) Banning movement of the passenger commercial vehicles after midnight:

How dare you question me (police)?

25 October 2013 - 12:33pm — murali772

Rajesh G, in a complaint to the Karnataka Police Complaint Authority (KPCA), alleged that policemen from the Bannerghatta police station assaulted him with a cricket bat on October 16. He had questioned them when they were assaulting two men fighting on the road. The cops turned on Rajesh, causing him injuries to his right ankle.

Isn't this New York model the one we should be adopting?

20 October 2013 - 5:16pm — murali772

Click on the link below to watch a TED presentation by Ms Janette Sadik-Khan, Transportation commissioner, New York City, on how the city is being transformed taking pedestrianisation and cycling to a new high:

What purpose does the LokAyukta serve?

11 October 2013 - 11:20am — murali772

Following are the excerpts from the Supreme Court order dt 1st Oct, 2013, in the Anil Kumar & Ors. Vs. M.K. Aiyappa & ANR.(full text of the order may be accessed here), whereby it upheld the Karnataka High Court order quashing criminal proceedings initiated against senior IAS officer M.K.

What purpose does BMTF serve?

11 October 2013 - 11:13am — murali772

Holding that the power of the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) is restricted to protecting public property and detecting unauthorized construction/encroachment on such land, the Karnataka high court on Thursday quashed the chargesheets and FIRs filed by BMTF against BBMP engineers for not stopping illegal construction on private properties.

Blatant violations of rule of law

1 October 2013 - 5:38pm — murali772

Now, even as I had just finished publishing the post titled "re-assertion of the rule of law?", pertaining to the government clearing encroachments onto the Kaggadaspura lake (check this), I was hit by this bombshell of a post (full text below) on "SaveKoramangala Ya

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