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BMTC - 500k - 600k causing passenger inconvenience

BusPublic Transport

500k and 600k are the only 2 volvo routes between Silk Board to Vijaynagar and there is a lot of passenger density in this route. As per the BMTC route info, there is a bus every 5 mins in the peak hour between 530 and 730.

Fate of RTI activists

Governance

Its not long ago we heard about murder of RTI activist in Maharashtra, now its turn of Gujarat.

Hearing pursuant to the appeal under RTI in the case of the Indiranagar Tree Felling

Everything else

With the BBMP tree officer remaing silent to the RTI query raised by me on the 10th April, in the matter of the apparently unauthorised tree felling on 100 ft road in Indiranagar (check this), I had sent an appeal to the Commissioner, BBMP, on the 28th June.

Kudachi-Bagalkot Railway project

Commuter RailPublic Transport

Kudachi-Bagalkot Railway project gets nod

BANGALORE: The South Western Railways (SWR) has completed the survey of the recently sanctioned Kudachi-Bagalkot line in a record time and the Railway Board too has approved the survey and entered it in the pink book.

BMTC - Extending the monopoly

BusPublic Transport

Quoting myself from an earlier post "I predict the irrelevance of the auto in the transport scheme within the next 5 years." 

Nanos may push autos out of B’lore

Looks like we dont have to wait 5 years for my prediction

Scrap Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill / Act 2010 - Petitions

Politics

The maximum imprisonment for violating the provisions of the 1964 Act was 06 months whereas the 2010 Bill/Act prescribes imprisonment extending up to 07 years. It is this that has made people question the intentions of the State BJP (right wing) government as in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), imprisonment for such long terms is usually meant for crimes of a far more heinous nature.

The latest Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill / Act 2010 virtually equates the killing of a cow with the murder of a human. (It's only the economically weaker sections of the society who consume/eat beef in India.)

An offender may be imprisoned from 01-07 years and fined between Rs. 25,000-50,000 or Rs.1 lakh. Draws the lines - us and them, the beef-eaters and those who don't, the killers (bad ones) and the pious/good ones. Reinforces those lines with the draconian, absolute and brutal police power of the State behind one particular section. Removes any distinction between "cow" and "cattle".

ITIR - Gaining Momentum

Economy

GOK passed the ITIR Act 2010 on Thursday, becoming the first state to do so. Per this DH Report:

The ITIR Act, 2010 will enable the state to attract a whopping Rs.2 trillion (Rs.2 lakh crore) global investments in the knowledge sector, boost exports and create 3 million jobs in a decade

BBMP and Mosquitoes

Public Health

Taking a deviation to discuss a less fancy but important topic. Public Health.

According to today's DH Report, "Mosquito Control Project Director" Dr Lokesh says:

The Palike is spraying pesticides, carrying out fogging and has launched several health awareness camps to educate the public about maintaining cleanliness in and around their houses.

...has assigned three people to spray pesticides in each ward.

...has also undertaken a publicity drive to inform every citizen about the precautionary measures.

 

So the story goes. I haven't seen a single fogging machine or guys spraying pesticides at work. If DH wouldn't report it, I wouldn't have a clue there was a 'publicity drive'. But everything stated implies things that have either happened in the past or presently ongoing. 

Do I live in a different Bangalore? Have you seen any of the above in your ward?

 

Counting the poor - how many do we have?

Governance

Public Agenda dear, here is that intellectually ruminating discussion we said we will have soon. How many poor people do we have in our country? The debate, and understanding the number is important because the classic quote goes - "you can't fix what you can't measure". If you can't count your poor, you can't check how your poverty alleviation programs are working.

Two important things around which disagreements arise are 1) How do you define a poor household? 2) How exactly do you count people using the poverty definition you accept?

First of all, the two popular stats that are quoted to start a discussions like this

  • Arjun Sengupta - 77% of Indians lived on less than Rs 20 a day.
  • Suresh Tendulkar co. - Poverty ratio at the all India level ... 37.2% in 2004-05. Rural poverty ... 41.8% and urban ... 25.7%. Criteria, spend per person per month. Rs446.68 in rural areas. Rs578.8 in urban. (see http://www.dnaindia.com/i...)

Some other notable stats:

Right is there; but, no information

Governance

Following (in italics) are the relevant excerpts from the New Indian Express report:

The government may have enacted a law empowering citizens to demand information from public authorities, but five years later many government departments are yet to take the “first step” towards proactive disclosure. Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI act mandates that all authorities under the purview of the law must index, catalogue and computerise official records to be easily accessed by the people. So far, however, few departments have paid heed to the provision, says K A Thippeswamy, Karnataka State Information Commissioner. The progress, he said, has been “almost negligible”. “They (departments) do not even have a record room to keep  documents,” he said. “They were supposed to do it within six months of the Act coming into force. But it’s been five years and they are yet to do it.’’

Alternatives to Road-Widening

This post is in response to criticism that road-widening critics haven't provided alternatives to widening.

Two things.

1. Sorry for the extreme illustration, but suppose I find someone committing a murder. I'm not sure that I have to provide an alternative to him and only then try to stop him.

2. I think the people mentioned above have suggested various alternatives. The 'people' say that the problem is a unsustainable number of private vehicles on our roads. Following from that, they have likened road-widening to 'loosening the belt to cure obesity' and recognised that it is a unworkable response to traffic congestion. They have provided following alternatives to resolving traffic congestion. None of these may help by itself. But some combination of them should be tried. The list has been made from the following sources:

SBC's Convention invite

The Solution - CyBaNa

Stupidity of road widening

Lake encroachment in Mahadevapura, where to complain?

LakesWater

Want to inform regarding the lake encroachments in and around Mahadevpura and Garudachar Palya regions.Where can we complain?
 
This is serious problem seen in most areas,covering a lake/pond and constructing.This is happening everywhere including bellandur, mahadevpura, Outer ring road, Garudachar Palya.
 

GIM - Beyond Bangalore, Business World

Economy

Read some coverage of GIM in BusinessWorld, (Beyond Bangalore). Must say that beyond Bangalore is a nice topic for the article, here are some intereasting bits:

... projects, if they all take off, will see Rs 4 lakh crore being invested ... Almost 65 per cent of these projects are in the iron and steel sector ... in Bellary.

The stat that Karnataka needs to change is this ...

Karnataka ... single-city economy. Bengaluru ... accounts for over 55-60 per cent of the state’s GDP, according to Aroon Raman, chairman of CII-Karnataka.

An interesting angle on iron ore controversy. Will illegal activity go away, be legalized now!?

Three new flyovers will decongest Sarjapura Road

Infrastructure

Hope this will bring down some traffic problem on ORR.

Commuting on Sarjapura Road is set to become a smooth affair as three flyovers are ready to be inaugurated on the thoroughfare anytime next week. The first flyover is located at Iblur Junction, while the second flyover is at Agara. The third flyover is an extension of the Agara flyover,

Iblur flyover will be a signal-free stretch and it will make the movement of vehicles to Silk Board Junction on Sarjapur Road faster.

Vehicles can now take the main road instead of taking service roads and cross roads and this will also ease the traffic movement towards Koramangala, Sarjapura Road, Marathahalli and Outer Ring Road.

Bangalore Development Authority officials said that there would be some bus lanes and grade-level roads dedicated to the Iblur flyover as it was a part of three-flyover interlink.

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_three-new-flyovers-will-decongest-sarjapura-road_1407322

sanjeev

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