deepakar's blog

Cyclists' woes at Brigade World Trade Center

20 March 2013 - 7:27pm — deepakar

Brigade Group's World Trade Center claims to be " The best address your office could have in Bangalore". Ask anyone who cycles to their workplace in this elite location and you'll probably get a snigger.

Video from workshop on Urban Infrastructure and Delivery

4 October 2011 - 10:46am — deepakar

Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson of the High Powered Expert Committee, in this video, talks about the committee's report on Indian Urban Infrastructure and Service Delivery. The full report can be downloaded here.

Accountability of our emergency helplines

2 July 2010 - 1:09pm — deepakar

Here's my experience with the Police emergency phone number, 100, that makes me pray that nobody ever has any emergency.

Last Saturday, I was returning by train from Thanjavur. While the train was waiting for a clearance to enter the railway station, I heard some commotion outside. Two guys, at least one of them very drunk, were fighting. The inebriated one was lying on the tracks (and hardly moving) and the other man was beating him up. This was at 4 AM and it was still pretty dark. Sensing danger to their lives if a train happened to approach on that track the passengers from my coach urged them to move away from the rails. Since they didn't pay heed, I decided to call the police helpline 100.

My first reaction when the lady answered the phone was surprise at the complete lack of urgency in her tone and voice. I explained the situation to her, and she asked me to call the railway police. There was no answer from that number so I dialed 100 again and got to speak to the same lady. This time she asked me to call the general railway helpline 197!

Inputs to proposed Fire Safety Legislation

22 June 2010 - 1:19pm — deepakar

I'm posting this on behalf of Vivek Reddy of the BJP Legislative cell. Vivek is gathering inputs for a reform to the current Fire-safety laws and their enforcement. He was keen on getting inputs from Praja too. I had referred the following two threads to him.

http://praja.in/en/projects/2010/03/12/fire-safety-project-bring-awareness-and-seriousness

http://praja.in/en/blog/r...

Further inputs will be appreciated

* Who are the local experts on the area that could contribute to this activity?

* Are you aware of some measures and best-practices adopted successfully in other countries?

* Anyone who has knowledge of the law and can critique the current legislation?

1 comment

Koramangala SmartVotes - Calling on volunteers

28 November 2009 - 9:48am — deepakar

Koramangala SmartVotes is a campaign to elect a true citizen's representative in the upcoming BBMP elections

The Process

Will Green Bonus save the forests around Gundia?

19 October 2009 - 11:30pm — deepakar

The environment ministry has declared a reward system called "Green Bonus" as an incentive for states to protect and increase their green cover. The details of this scheme are not out yet but it sure sounds interesting. I do hope that this comes out as early as possible.

Water level drop

13 August 2009 - 9:48pm — deepakar

This article talks about the dramatic drop in ground water in Northern India.

Pedestrian bridge across Intermediate Ring Road

12 February 2009 - 9:37pm — deepakar

Embassy Golf Links on Intermediate Ring Road, Koramangala is one of first IT parks in Bangalore and houses large facilities of several MNCs such as IBM, Microsoft, Netapp, Yahoo and Goldman Sachs. This campus houses thousands of employees. One huge problem that the employees face is to cross the street right outside their facility.

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