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A perfect Bus Day this time, almost!

It certainly got better for me this time. Can't take the bus regularly to work because of the last mile problem (HAL airport to CV Raman Nagar, no bus, no shuttles to rely upon). So the Bus Days for me are Auto rickshaw haggle days as well.

But not this time. 314AA, a new route, goes all the way from Whitefield to Bagmane Tech Park. Too good to be true, but I was at my bus stop at 8.25, and a 314AA showed up at 8.30 am (as was told and promised by 'someone'). Nice Marco Polo equipment, 12 Rs only all the way to Bagmane Tech Park, aha!

The route is an iffy one though. Airport Road is one thing, and Kaggadaspura Main Road another. Spent 20-25 minutes (!!) to cross the narrow stretch near Railway crossing, and reached Bagmane bus stand only at 9.40 am. Got off 314AA, and hopped on to the Tech Park shuttle which circles inside the campus every 5-10 minutes. 9.50, in my office. Route Map here, red dot is where the that 25 minute jam happened.

550 wealthy biggies owe 2.5 lakh crores in income taxes!

Governance

TOI carried a report on biggest IT defaulters saying 550 top defaulters who owe more than 25 crores.

..Till March 31, the total arrears were Rs 2.30 lakh crore and with the start of the new fiscal, another Rs 20,000 crore has been added to this figure. Last year, the department had managed to recover nearly Rs 12,000 crore. The target for this year has been fixed at Rs 14,000 crore...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/550-biggies-on-Rs-25cr-tax-defaulters-list/articleshow/6044719.cms

Is it case of less of enforcement and more of corruption?

Utilizing existing trains

Commuter RailPublic Transport

Praja.in members travelled by train and proved that the trains can be cheaper and faster also. Sop why not we consider the existing options and link with BMTC buses to the IT sector areas in the city? Just a list of them: * The stations which are very well connected with BMTC buses are Krishnarajapuram,Carmelram and whitefield stations. The are closer to the IT sectors also.

1. Krishnarajapuram Junction: It has the bus stop attached to it on the outer ring road side. almost all trains bound south stop at this station. BMTC buses connect well to:

a) ITPL: 304,306,319,600 series buses

b)Mahadevapura: 500A,500C,500D,500N,500L,501,501B,502A,C-1,BIAS-8,BIAS-8A

c)Bellandur: Same as Mahadevapira except 502A

Trains from Bangalore city:

Lalbagh Express at 6:30AM Marikuppam passenger at 7AM Chennai Express at 8AM Chennai Passenger at 9:20 Bangarpet passenger at 10 Good parking facility available at city station/cantt station.

A praja face to face meet at Vittal Mallya Road June 12, 2010

InfrastructureEverything else

I, Mr. KV Pathy and Mr. Janardanam arrived at the Vittal Mallya road at about 8:30 AM to day as scheduled. We were later joined by Dr. Srinath Heragu. We started our tour of the road from the kasturba road end of the Vittal Mallya Road.

Kaggadasapura Lake Encorachment - Commendable work Mr. Mayor

LakesWater

From a newspaper report last week:

“Bangalore: Mayor S K Nataraj conducted a surprise inspection of Kaggadasapura lake on Wednesday and ordered for the immediate clearance/demolition of a road that was built across the lake. After the inspection, mayor said: “It was an informal visit to C V Nagar assembly constituency where I was alerted by the local MLA about the the construction of a road in midst of the lake. Instructions have been given to demolish the road and clear theencroachments.” 

Further

" ... Kaggadasapura lake is spread across 46 acres of land. While MLA S Raghu said he will fund Rs 75 lakh for fencing of the lake area, mayor vowed Rs 3.75 lakh for upgradation of the lake. Nataraj also visited Benniganahalli lake and Hosakere lake during his visit.”

BMTC invites tender for Hebbal TTMC under PPP!

BusPublic Transport

Happened to notice a tender notification on BMTC website for the construction of TTMC at Hebbal.

The Tender document states the site overview to be "..The project site is located in the northern part of the city at Hebbal, measuring about 7.95 acres. The site is situated at the intersection of the National Highway 7 (Bellary Road) and the Outer Ring Road. The intersection along with the Hebbal flyover is an important landmark in the city and is strategically located in terms of connectivity to the new airport at Devanahalli and to different parts of the city.

As per the Bangalore Master Plan 2015, the  site land use is classified as Traffic & Transport  (T&T) category. Currently out of 7.95 acres, about 4.27 acres of the bus depot is operated by BMTC. Depot comprises of maintenance workshop, washing area, fuelling station, stores and administration building. At present, the depot is a base for about 210 buses which includes about 90 Volvo buses..."

Green Bangalore: Some Reflections

14 Jun 2010 17:00
Asia/Calcutta
Everything else

Literary, Arts and Heritage Forum, NIAS, is pleased to announce a Lecture on "Green Bangalore: Some Reflections” by Prof Vijay Tiruvady (vrt@bgl.vsnl.net.in)
On Monday, 14 June 2010 at 5.00 PM in JRD Tata Auditorium, NIAS

Highlights of the talk:
The Greening began with the development of Devarakadus & Gundutopus around Bangalore;
The next greening took place around settlements adjacent to lakes, a network of which was established by Kempe Gowda to harvest Monsoon rain water;
The first area within Bangalore to be greened was the 40 acre Rose & Cypress Garden of Haider Ali.
With the growth of the British  Empire plant collecting expeditions resulted in exotic species coming into Lalbagh.
With these developments Bangalore has had a mix of indigenous and exotic plants like no other city in India.  
Through the 19th Century all the early institutions in Bangalore were planted with this mix of indigenous and exotics.

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill

With all the interesting Parliament bills that get discussed, scrutinized and thrashed by media and people like us, there are many more which get missed out. Through the PRS site I came across "Pension Fund and Regulatory Development Authority Bill".

Before I try to explain it, here are some fun facts
  • Only 13% of the workforce is currently covered by pension schemes
  • Total government (centre+states) pension cost has increased from Rs 6,400 crore in 1991 to Rs 46,569 crore in 2001 and it is estimated that this figure will reach around 80000 crores by 2081-82
  • A number of states are already defaulting on pension payments. Employee Pension Scheme was reportedly underfunded to the extent of Rs 22,000 crore as on March 31, 2004.

Essentially, the PFRDA bill aims to address all of the above. This Bill provides a regulatory framework for a new pension system (NPS) which will be available to any individual. All the employees who joined the central government on or after 1 January 2004 already come under this new pension system.

Tracking page for GIM

Praja related

Going by the hype around it, and looking at sharp opinions within the activist community, fallouts of Global Investment Meet (aka GIM) need close tracking. Whether GIM will bring inclusive growth, or create more controversies around corporate greed and disrespect for natural resources depends on how much interest we take in monitoring the specific proposals and demanding transparency.

To make it easy for readers and contributors on this website, we have created a special tracking page for GIM:

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