Blogs

Isn't it time that as important a task as preparation and maintenance of the electoral roles (and issuance of EPID cards), on which the success of the entire governance system rests, is out-sourced to professional agencies?

There's no denying that the tree cover in Bangalore is being lost largely due to road widening. Road widening is necessitated due to unchecked growth and usage of private vehicles. To address this problem, you have to have excellent public transport services. METRO may be a solution. But, it is extremely expensive, and at best a solution in the long-term. BMTC cannot cope up with the needs, however much they may appear to have become efficient, which they are not and cannot be, as long as they continue to enjoy a monopoly status. The simple answer is to facilitate the entry of TVS kind of companies (my first exposure to TVS was as a bus service provider in the city of Madurai) into the fray. The present rules do not provide for that. It facilitates only the 'Sharma' kind of operations, which in turn only helps provide fodder for the die-hard opponents of the private sector.

Let us start building a "citizen's resources" section at Praja website. Many members know websites, phone numbers or email addresses for various local government bodies or public service providers. Let us start listing all such 'self-help' resources.

Eventually, this new section here could have the following:

1) Self help: as mentioned above

2) RTI and PIL guidelines: how to file a RTI application. Or even a PIL. And member's success stories

3) Contacts of helpful NGOs and RWAs (resident welfare associations) that members have experiences with

First off, thanks Vasanth for the informative update on the long awaited train. Hopefully they will complete the Bangalore Hassan line soon, the zig zag route via Mysore (go south) and Hassan (come back north) takes a bit too much time (12 hours).

BTW, I read a news-piece on this train in ToI this morning, and something in there just amazed me. The piece talks about Mr Lalu Yadav flagging the Bangalore train off at Mangalore, and how he kept the audience in splits during his speech. Now, for the interesting part:

"When Lalu mentioned that he knew the reasons behind the delay and put the onus on the bus and truck lobby, there was a loud roar of approval"

Bangalore Accident Numbers
Bangalore is the third-most dangerous city in the country when it comes to traffic.

Total killed since 2001: 5631
Total injured since 2001: 46,926
Killed by BMTC buses since 2004: 366
Injured by BMTC buses since 2004: 1478
Killed by BMTC buses in the last 10 months: 97
Injured by BMTC buses in the last 10 months: 288

ಬಹಳ ದಿನಗಳಿಂದ ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲವರು ಬಸ್ ಲೇನ್ ಬೇಕು, ಬಸ್ ಲೇನ್ ಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ಆಸೆ ಪಡ್ತಾ ಇದ್ವಲ್ಲ, ನಮ್ಮ ಕನಸು ಸಧ್ಯದಲ್ಲೇ ನನಸಾಗೋ ಹಾಗೆ ಕಾಣಿಸ್ತಾ ಇದೆ.

ಪ್ರಜಾವಾಣಿಯ ಈ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಬಸ್ ಲೇನ್ ಗಳನ್ನ ಪ್ರಾಯೋಗಿಕವಾಗಿ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆ ಮಾಡೋ ಆಲೋಚನೆ ಇದೆಯಂತೆ.