murali772's blog

Dr U V Singh, IFS - my next year's nominee for Bangalore Ratna

22 February 2011 - 3:56pm — murali772

His only aim was to save the lake from pollution. U V Singh, chief conservator of forests, who heads the Lake Development Authority (LDA), was assaulted on Sunday by a corporator. But this is not his first such encounter — Singh was attacked by mining lords and the eucalyptus mafia earlier.

HU study on "equity and access in Bangalore bus system"

16 February 2011 - 1:58pm — murali772

DULT has commissioned Hasiru Usiru (HU) to undertake a study on "equity and access in Bangalore bus system". A concept note prepared in this connection, and submitted to the Commissioner, is attached.

Amongst other things, the Concept note says that:

BWSSB emulating the Mysore example?

16 February 2011 - 12:52pm — murali772

BWSSB is going for a complete overhaul of its pipelines to check water leakage; 60,000 of the 1.05 lakh water meters in Bangalore South will be replaced; 145 km length of pipelines will be replaced for this pilot project. The target is to bring down the leakage from the current 36% to 16%. Work will begin in three months.

Driving License - Medical certificate hitches

3 February 2011 - 10:27pm — murali772

My license became due for renewal mid-Dec, and with having learned the ropes at the time of renewal of my wife's license (check this), I thought it was going to be just a half hour's job for me at the Koramangala RTO's office.

7 Horrors of Bangalore

22 January 2011 - 4:21pm — murali772

Bangalore Mirror has invited citizens to select the "7 Wonders of Bangalore". Simultaneously, if one was to nominate "7 Horrors of Bangalore" (or more), my list will include the following (not necessarily in the order of listing):

The Kochi connection

20 January 2011 - 1:52pm — murali772

I was in Kochi on Monday, the 17th Jan. After I finished the personal work that I had gone there for, I called up Mr Vivek Mathai of Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), the people who had organised the Bus Day in Kochi on Dec 18th. Between us, we fixed up to meet next morning at 10 AM in their office.

Lessons from another BJP govt

20 January 2011 - 11:25am — murali772

Excerpts from the column by Swapan Dasgupta in the Sunday TOI (for the full text, click here)

Dodda Anyaaya!!!

12 January 2011 - 3:20pm — murali772

In Dandinashivara ZP constituency (Turuvekere taluk, Tumkur dt), various party candidates had promised the voters of getting a KSRTC bus facility sanctioned to Kurubarahalli Koppa village. Retired school teacher H K Nanjamma, hailing from Hullekere village, had contested as a BJP rebel candidate but lost to the BJP official candidate.

Mis-use of Kannada by Registrar of Societies

27 December 2010 - 6:16pm — murali772

The Registrar of Societies has a very important function to perform in the state, particularly with associations multiplying in their numbers by the day. As it is, they are short of capacity to handle the job they are assigned, effectively.

Govt Service Providers' Consumer Committee/ Council - how effective?

26 December 2010 - 6:11pm — murali772

Taking over as the MD of BESCOM, Mr Manivannan, IAS, is moving in earnest to set up a 'consumer participatory council', which he insists should have 'bottom upwards' approach, lest it also get labelled elitist, like had happened in the case of BATF and ABIDe.

Now, a parking lot under Military Memorial Park

25 December 2010 - 5:05pm — murali772

Green activists are up in arms against BBMP's plan to construct a basement parking bay inside Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain park. Speaking to TOI, Vinay Srinivasa of Hasiru Usiru, an NGO, said that the project was ridiculous.

Poor show by BMTC drivers

25 December 2010 - 1:41pm — murali772

Despite many efforts and initiatives to improve driving skills of drivers of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), results have not matched the expectations. According to data available, this year (till December) 82 people have died in various accidents involving BMTC buses.The number of deaths recorded last year was also 82.

Government apologies

24 December 2010 - 3:23pm — murali772

Australia on Thursday apologized to Indian doctor Mohammad Haneef for wrongly detaining him on terror charges three years back, saying it was a mistake and hoped that the compensation paid to him will mark the end of an “unfortunate chapter”.

Right to response in English, an official language of GoK

24 December 2010 - 11:14am — murali772

What is clearly noticeable, of recent, particularly after the RTI usage has become quite extensive, is the mis-use of Kannada by government officials to deny information, through plain obfuscation (This is apart from other subtle, and not-so subtle, ways of denying information being adopted - click h

Should BBMP be running schools and colleges?

22 December 2010 - 5:27pm — murali772

To improve the standard of its schools, the city corporation is planning to recruit 300 permanent teachers. Chairman of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Standing Committee on Education, BV Ganesh said, "Around 300 permanent teachers will be recruited for all 33 BBMP schools for the academic year of 2011.

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