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Minutes of the meeting with Arghyam

20 May 2010 - 10:58am — deepakar
Water

Some notes from our freewheeling discussion with folks at Arghyam

Participants: Vijay, Deepak and Mrinalini from Arghyam. Manjari, Deepak and Neha

On Water Index

  •  The feedback was that we should focus on a narrower scope (say, just collecting data on rainwater harvesting)
  • If we are not able to get data from BWSSB directly are we going to take the RTI route? And if we do get data from BWSSB, will we be able to cross-verify it some way?
  • Apart from collecting all the data, having an interface for smart queries might be a useful feature to build on Praja.

On Crowdsourcing

Delhi/Mumbai get wider spans...not Blr why?

19 May 2010 - 6:58pm — srinidhi
Metro RailPublic Transport

 To expedite the process and make it more cost effective, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is making use of gigantic 25 metre-long girders to join spans on elevated stretch of the section.

‘‘The cost of construction with the existing 3-meter spans works out to Rs 24 crore per km, while the 25-meter ones cost Rs 19 crore per km. So using the bigger spans will result in a saving of nearly Rs 5 crore per km,’’ said a DMRC official.

It  looks like this..


The bigger spans work out to be more economical and also speed up pace of the construction. Officials said it takes about a week to join the space between two pillars using segmental construction while the bigger spans can be put in place in just one day.

ವಾಹನಾಸುರನ ಯಗ್ನಪಶು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ೨: ಚಾಲಕರನ್ನು ನಿಯಂತ್ರಿಸಿ.

18 May 2010 - 4:53am — mbnataraj
Traffic
ವಾಹನಾಸುರನ ಯಗ್ನಪಶು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ೨: ಚಾಲಕರನ್ನು ನಿಯಂತ್ರಿಸಿ.


ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ೪೫೦೦ ಕಿ.ಮಿ. ರಸ್ತೆಗಳ ಉದ್ದಗಲಗಳನ್ನು   ದೊಡ್ಡದು ಮಾಡುವುದು ಸುಲಭವೇನಲ್ಲ,  ಸಾಧ್ಯವೂ ಇಲ್ಲ.

Meeting with Mr V Madhu, Infrastructure Development Dept

17 May 2010 - 11:55pm — silkboard
Commuter RailPublic Transport
20 May 2010 15:00
Asia/Calcutta

On the subject of commuter rail plans, finally, we have a meeting comfirmed with Mr V Madhu. got this from Mr Madhu's office. Thursday 20th May, 3 PM, Vikasa Soudha.

You are invited for the Meeting with Shri V.Madhu, Principal Secretary to Government,  Infrastructure Development Department on 20th May 2010  at 15:00hrs  in Room no-28, Ground Floor, Vikasa Soudha, Bangalore-560009   You are requested to carry a copy of this mail to allow yourself inside Vikasa Soudha.

Right to response in English

17 May 2010 - 6:08pm — murali772
Governance

From over a year now, the responses from GoK officials to queries under RTI, are being made out only in Kannada, even when raised in English, and even when specifically requested to respond in English.

Now, though I can speak Kannada fairly fluently; I can't read or write the language (Questions as to why people like me haven't bothered to learn to read and write the language can be the subject of another blog; but, please do not bring it up here). However, even true-blue Kannadiga's, to whom I have been referring these official responses, have been having difficulty figuring out the specific nuances pertaining to the issues involved.

As such, I feel this is a strategy being adopted by the babu's largely to obfuscate and prevaricate on issues. And, it is certainly having its effects - like from over a year, I have not filed a single query, though I used to be quite a regular before.

In the light of all these, on the 1st of this year, I filed a query as under:

Neta, Babu foreign jaunts

17 May 2010 - 3:47pm — murali772
Governance

Information obtained through RTI reveals that 157 legislators and 48 officials who visited foreign countries in 2009 (costing a whopping Rs 4.3 cr) haven't bothered to prepare a study report.

Meeting with Mr Sood, ACP Traffic, May 22

17 May 2010 - 1:59pm — silkboard
22 May 2010 14:00
Asia/Calcutta
Enforcement

Traffic enforcement being the ever popular 'issue', I had requested for Mr Praveen Sood (Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic) for some time to hear him on two subjects

Bangalore scene before computers

17 May 2010 - 11:37am — E.R. Ramachandran

Note: This was published in Churumuri as once-upon a -time- before- computers- in Bangalore (http://churumuri.wordpres...)

Free service from Traffic police

17 May 2010 - 10:30am — manjari

Do not know if it is true but got a message today saying:

Send 'Join BTP' to 567678 to receive traffic alerts at 8am, 9am, 5pm, 7pm and 8pm... free service from traffic police.

It is a good initiative if enough people start utilizing this service.
Though I still think this service should be area specific but I do understand that can be hard.

We get such information on radio as well but most of the times everyone is listening to it while on road, stuck in traffic :)

Time to look at Proportional representation?

16 May 2010 - 7:19pm — murali772
Governance

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.

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