| Praja

User login

List of Posts

Karnataka State pollution control board (KSPCB) - active?

8 April 2010 - 2:37pm — manjari

They have 10 offices in Bangalore alone (isnt that good news ;)
They have a lot of laboratories which are set up for KSPCB for data analysis and data gathering.

The site says "Samples collected by the Regional Offices of the Board, Industries, Organizations and from general public are analysed."
When i read this I only get evil ideas (evil because it might not be fun for a lot of people)

They have listed a number of parameter that they analyze.
Industrial waste water has: 41 parameters
Air: 6 parameters
Water: 26 parameters.

They have things like "monthly avg result of national ambient air quality" and "classification of river water quality as per GEMS and MINARS"
The only small, tiny winy problem is they have failed to update any new reports and the last one is of 2007.

The last annual plan has been put up for year 2006-2007.

So I have a simple question, what happened to KSPCB? Does it exist? If it does then where are the reports?
If they have reports then cant we file RTI to get it?

Renewing DL at the RTO without touts/bribes

8 April 2010 - 11:22am — s_yajaman

My wife and I went yesterday to the Indiranagar RTO to renew her DL. As soon as we stepped into "the zone" there were touts offering help. We, of course, ignored them and walked up to the RTO.

As we walked up we realized that my wife's DL said "RTO BNG CENTRAL" (Koramangala) and we wondered what trouble that would mean. But we decided to check anyway.

There was a helpdesk there. It was operational. We asked the lady there if we could renew the license here. She gave us the forms and asked us to check at Window 3 if it was possible. We also realized there was a medical fitness certificate (completely in Kannada) to be got from a doctor.

At Window 3 there was a reasonably helpful lady. She told my wife that it was possible to do it there. She confirmed if the address remained unchanged. She asked us to write a letter requesting that the license be renewed there.

We paid the Rs.250 fee at the cash counter and my wife went to get her MC done.

Traffic alerts on signboards - Variable Message Signboards (VMS)

8 April 2010 - 9:18am — vlnarayan

DH Reports :

Bangalore, the first City in the country to have Variable Message Signboards (VMS) on roads and junctions.

Four VMS were commissioned at Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road, Airport Road at Hebbal (two signboards - one towards airport and another towards City) and K R Puram (towards City). These boards are connected to Traffic Management Centre (TMC).

The Variable Message Signboards help alert travelling public about prevailing condition on roads ahead and also help them choose alternative directions to reach their destination.

According to the Home Minister V S Acharya, the City traffic police will install another 16 VMS soon. The City police have utilised funds sanctioned under B-Track.

Bangalore Patrol

7 April 2010 - 1:56pm — manjari

Times of India along with Janaagrah launch Bangalore Patrol (starting tomorrow) says the cover page of TOI today. I tried to look for it online but couldnt find a thing about the same. But if you have a TOI around check it out, it is impossible to miss.

According to the Advertisement "Bangalore patrol involves a stringent ward infrastructure and services assessment programme with the singular aim of demanding direct evaluating and accountability from the local administrative and governance system."

They will start with 5 essential civic rights of water supply, Mobility, Sanitation, Environment and Public amenities.

It will measure the same in 198 wards. By doing so they intend to monitor the work of our newly elected representative's in each of the wards. In my opinion the best measure of performance and also at the same time we get a good idea about our city.
According to the article "Progress report will be based on simple objective performance evaluation criteria and will be freely available to the public, empowering them to demand answers"

The Lok Satta Party public interactions meet with JP

7 April 2010 - 12:29pm — psaram42

After the recent BBMP election JP is visiting Bangalore in carrying forward the new party’s agenda. This interaction reminded us the probable scenario which might have prevailed at the time of freedom struggle. The fight now is against the middle class apathy ignorance and above all their pretence to know best according to JP.

JP stressed on the importance of local government. An increase in per capita income alone may make the country rich but still a banana republic. He felt that with proper management the malaise like power cuts etc can be avoided altogether.

To days scenario highlights the viciously guarded statues quo by our politicians. The confused nonchalance and apathy of the voters is a boon to them. Many levels of changes are needed. JP alluded to the two major types of corruption, the extortional and collusive type of corruption. Both kind of corruption are to be tackled.

Monthly Praja Meet - Apr 2010

7 April 2010 - 9:22am — Ravi_D

Start: 10 Apr 2010 07:30

End: 10 Apr 2010 08:30

Timezone: Asia/Calcutta

These meetings haven't been as regular of late. How about reviving our second Saturday early am meeting tradition? Pls leave a note here if you wish to attend. All are welcome.

Agenda: Discuss projects (Ongoing & Planned) & other Praja activities. Feel free to stay back for an open forum right after.

Venue: Open to your suggestions.

My office has moved out of Cunningham road; I can host it in my current location @ BTM Layout instead.

What's on FM radio about Bus Day this week!?

6 April 2010 - 11:54pm — jennypinto

Just to keep all in the loop about what's on air about bus day.... 94.3 , radio one, started Monday this week.

Busday:

Login or register to post comments
Read more
2 attachments

Incremental List of Parameters

6 April 2010 - 9:02pm — Neha_Dar

The following is an incremental list of the parameters we plan to track as part of the water index. We shall continue to add parameters until we finalise a stable index.

Request Praja members to review this list, focusing on
* Any broad category that has not been covered.
* Any parameter that has been left out.

To add to the list,

edit this wiki page and enter your suggested parameter(s) under the sixth category (Additonal Parameters). Please enter clear and concise parameters/descriptions. Rap on the knuckles for vagueness. :)

The first five categories form the initial list. Additonal parameters suggested by Praja members form the 6th category:

1. Pipe Water

a. Hours of Supply

b. Coverage - Percentage of households having a bwssb connection.

c. Unaccounted for Water- Calculated by measuring the amount of water that BWSSB bills to the amount of water that it supplies.

Open Schooling

6 April 2010 - 6:29pm — surajnair

For a detailed FAQ please check out http://openskool.wordpress.com/faq/ and the PPT attached.

Login or register to post comments
1 attachment

List of Experts to Contact

6 April 2010 - 4:35pm — shekhar_mittal

Once we have the presentation and an initial list of parameters ready, we need to start reaching out to all the experts we can for feedback.

Let us create a list of experts we should get in touch with as well as the person who can be the point of contact.

This is a wiki so make the changes in the post itself.

Prof TV Ramachandra ( IISc) -- Neha/Manjari are trying to get in touch with him--DONE
Dr Shekhar Muddu ( IISc) -- He is a hydrogeologist. Zenrainman sir can get us in touch with him.--Meeting him on monday
Mr Tippeswamy (ex- BWSSB) -- Swati Dandekar is the point of contact. Consider checked out to Shekhar-DONE
Dr Harini Nagendra -- Who is he/she??--Sent out email--response awaited
Once we have reached out to all the above folks, we should also get in touch with Prof Ashwin Mahesh and Prof Rajeev Gowda.
Another name that came up at CiSTUP is of a Professor Mohan. It seems he has done a lot of work with BWSSB and was instrumental in getting RWH mandatory.---Sent out email--response awaited

Monthly archive

Praja.in comment guidelines

Posting Guidelines apply for comments as well. No foul language, hate mongering or personal attacks. If criticizing third person or an authority, you must be fact based, as constructive as possible, and use gentle words. Avoid going off-topic no matter how nice your comment is. Moderators reserve the right to either edit or simply delete comments that don't meet these guidelines. If you are nice enough to realize you violated the guidelines, please save Moderators some time by editing and fixing yourself. Thanks!