Blogs

Not sure if people saw this today ("send drunk drivers ...") in the TOI. Here is another link (newstodaynet).

"Finally, there is a serious effort to discipline our traffic. The Law Commission has prepared a report on traffic discipline that sets down stringent penalties and exacting norms to straighten out India's notoriously indisciplined roads.

Here is an example from ramesh_mbabu for us. Ramesh wrote on the central government's online grievance system (DPAR's PG Portal), and he did hear from them (see below).

Many government bodies now have online mechanisms to take in complaints, and from experiences we hear, many of these work. Work as in - you get a response back, though a good # of responses could be generic (thanks for the note, we will do something - type of thing). But even for the grievance redressing systems that work, we have heard that very few citizens actually use them. Why? Perhaps lack of awareness.

[Kind of mirrors what so many members here think of BMTC - routing not right, slow, last mile hassle etc etc - here is a real user experience {blr_editor}]

Last week i resolved to try BMTC to commute to office - from BTM to CBD - Ulsoor Road ( or Halsooru Road). I had written earlier to Mr. Sheriff and Tripathy earlier on the pathetic treatment meted out to BTM residents - to no avail. There is not a single bus that runs from BTM to MG Road directly - convenient to travellers.

First - we have 201 and its variants - which are crowded by the time they reach BTM. Requests for a BTM - Domlur variant have been denied till date. Requests for a 'seating only' premium variant have been declined.

The latest 'India Today' ranking of the top engg colleges in the country places Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) at no 10, the highest amongst all the private engg colleges, and higher than quite a few NITs. Amongst the Bangalore city colleges, only M S Ramaiah College of Engg figures in the list at no 21.

Was driving my F-I-L's Santro the other day when I was stopped by one of those police parties. 5 of them, settled under a thick tree. Half of them waiting to stop unsuspecting vehicles, the other half busy 'punishing' the 'successful' catches. I never get stopped when driving bigger cars, but the 9 year old santro 'fit' their criteria.

We are planning a re-structure of the website so that we can expand the site to reach the citizens of various other cities and citizen groups in these cities. Below is the summary of changes in brief.