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Time to look at Proportional representation?

16 May 2010 - 7:19pm — murali772

For as long as I can remember, I have opposed proportional representation on the usual grounds: stability, the rights of constituencies to elect their own candidates, etc. But watching the drama surrounding the British elections, I have begun to reconsider my position.

It is clear that in India, first past the post does not produce overall majorities. It is also clear that the relationship the framers of our Constitution envisaged between an MP and his constituents has remained a fantasy.

Moreover, the electoral system is being tampered with all the time. If the major political parties have their way, we will now reserve seats for women, creating sexually segregated ghettoes within our constituency map. This may or may not be a valid amendment but it has not been accompanied by any national debate. Those who support it do so on goody-goody grounds: “Let’s give women a chance, yaar”. Those who oppose it in Parliament do so because they are bigots.

Future of Capitalism

7 May 2010 - 4:55pm — murali772

''The public trust in business and its leaders has never been lower. To restore trust, it is time for business leaders to embrace their own version of the doctor’s Hippocratic Oath, which shapes a common understanding of the role of business in society and the conduct expected of business leaders,'' wrote Nitin Nohria ( who has been named to take over as the Dean of the prestigious Harvard Business School) recently after critiquing the failure of leadership in the recent economic and corporate turmoil.

''Developing, adopting, and institutionalizing such an oath is not going to be easy. But there is no better or more important moment to try—because at stake is the very legitimacy of business leaders and the future of capitalism,'' he warned. His passion for the idea led to HBS students adopting a voluntary MBA oath.

For the full report in the TOI, click here

About Public Complaint Management Systems

6 May 2010 - 1:03pm — Bheema.Upadhyaya

I just happened to create a single link for online complaint systems for Bangalore utilities. Just to make it at one place for me to start with. Even though it is not user friendly, it brings all complaint forms together.

Request prajas to use if found suitable. I may put some more effort if someone wants improvements.With my trial complaints with BBMP I learned following: (I have indicated this in earlier posts somewhere, but I repeat)

A long overdue remedy

4 May 2010 - 4:38pm — murali772

This girl, from Bellary medical college, visited the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) to collect her degree certificate on April 1. But four officials delayed giving it, citing various reasons. First, they told her the certificate was not signed by the vice-chancellor, and asked her to come after a couple of days. When she again went to them, they said the printer was out of order. They dilly-dallied this way for many days before finally demanding a bribe from her. Left with no choice, she knocked on the doors of the registrar. It was then the entire racket came to light. Immediately, the four officials were dismissed.

For the full report in the TOI, click here

TTMC - a case of total misuse of JNNURM funds

4 May 2010 - 2:02pm — murali772

The Jayanagar TTMC was built with a swanky futuristic look but all what’s within is huge empty spaces and leaking walls and roofs. Almost close to completing a year now, all the promises are still on paper. Apart from the busy bus service in the basement, there’s been no progress within. A quick survey of the entire building reveals nothing more than empty spaces, unfinished structures and poor quality of construction. Even the flooring and electrical wiring have not been completed. The walls and beams have already given in to the recent rain. The unfinished wiring works on the first and second floors are now seen soaked.

At a time when there is serious shortage of parking space, this TTMC has a huge park and ride provision on the terrace with a capacity of nearly 110 cars. The original idea behind it was that people could drive in, park their cars/ two-wheelers and board their bus. But, with no lifts ready yet, people are forced to walk the entire ramp up and down to park and ride. According to locals here, weekdays hardly see even 10-15 cars parked here. Even on weekends, the numbers hardly touch 20.

Should'nt city editors have critical eye ?

2 May 2010 - 6:13pm — vinay_sreenivasa

Here is what the editor of a city news paper says about metro and mono etc -

Another piece of good news. Apart from Metro rail, work on which has picked up speed, Bangalore will soon have a mono rail, acting as feeder service to the Metro, and a high speed rail to link the city to international airport. A global city like Bangalore needs such rapid transport systems. Its narrow roads can’t handle the increasing vehicular traffic. The number of twowheelers and autorickshaws will come down drastically once the Metro rail starts functioning. Many may stop using personal cars. You can reach your destination in no time, that too in the cozy comforts of air-conditioned coaches. No dust, no noise, no sweat. Mono rail will help you reach Metro stations in similar comfort. And you can say goodbye to parking problems.

I have pasted the link to the article in the epaper at the end of the mail. Read the times of india bangalore city edition - may 2, pg 5.

Government medical colleges hood-winking MCI

1 May 2010 - 2:07pm — murali772

If private medical colleges hire house surgeons to hoodwink Medical Council of India inspectors, it’s malpractice. But what if the government itself pushes through ‘standby transfers’ during MCI inspections and submits a report that new government medical colleges meet the governing body’s guidelines?

Medical education minister Ramachandra Gowda first termed this a ‘sensitive issue’ but then said the government was trying to save students who had got admission. Later, he insisted he didn’t want to comment on the issue.

The fact is the government issued 15 transfer orders of senior residents, lecturers, assistant professors and professors between January 16 and March 6 this year. In each transfer order, seven to nine faculty members were transferred from established medical institutions like Bangalore Medical College and KIMS, Hubli to new colleges in Hassan, Mandya, Shimoga and other places.

Minutes of a SCEP Meeting on “Global warming”

28 April 2010 - 9:22pm — psaram42

We have a weekly SCEP (Senior Citizen Enrichment Program) meeting on every Wednesday at 4:30 PM at Mother Tree a beautiful place provided by one of our SCEP members We were about 20 senior citizens at this meeting to day. It was a very hot evening and the welcome rain was the saving grace.

The speaker of the day was Ms Arun Shivasaran a young and upcoming Architect of repute.

The speaker started the talk on a poignant note of alluding to the commonly used greeting when we meet viz “how are you” meaning how is your health. Now it is high time we talk about global warming instead. For Architects it is now common to grade Silver gold and platinum standards based on Global warming compliance.

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Building bye laws

26 April 2010 - 5:28pm — psaram42

The comprehensive Building bye laws of 2003 available as a pdf document is impressive which tries to set the rules in a professional way for preserving heritage Bangalore. However the BJP government thought in its wisdom that it is very stringent and some minor deviations are in the public interest. I built my house in 1986 fully complaint to the set backs specified, and some thing more than specified and built a duplex building exclusively for one family. However I built a toilet at a corner outside which was not as per the rule book. However such akramas are now Sakrama. This according to me is a step in the forward direction.

"Water and a City" - discussions following the screening

26 April 2010 - 11:58am — murali772

The movie brought out the scenario fairly well, but which most on Praja are quite aware of.

During the discussions that followed, I brought up the matter of the reported 40% odd losses, largely on account of the inefficiencies/ mismanagement in distribution (compared to less than 10% in an efficient system), and followed it up with a suggestion "if the kind of contract entered into between Mysore City Corporation and JUSCO, was not the way to address the issue?".

Prof Mohan Kumar (Civil Engg Dept, IISc) responded saying a study/ survey had been conducted by L&T and Anglian Waters (or, one of the other foreign players - I am not quite sure which) a few years back covering some parts of Bangalore (I thought I heard the name Fraser Town mentioned) at a cost of Rs 32 crores - did he mention World Bank funded?. He did not mention if any work was actually undertaken. But, went on to add that it raised all kinds of technical issues, like "how do you replace the pipes in an area like Avenue road, etc?"

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