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No response from Mr Madhu's office

Want to share with all that I have tried several times to contact Mr Madhu for a meeting to share our now-ready CRS report with him. Have sent emails to his, and his PA's office, at least 5 emails. Have made at least 3 calls to his office as well. The person at other end, on one occasion, carried a chit for him while he was in the middle of a meeting.

Some of us took half day leaves from our work to meet him that day. We started on this report after our meeting with him, where during the meeting, he asked us to come back with a report summarizing our thoughts and suggestions. Now that the report is ready, and people have spent serious time putting it together, its only fair to expect him to at least accept the report.

He just got additional responsibilities, so its likely that he is busy with increased work load. We will try reach him again this week, email as well as phone, and in case there is no response yet again, we will assume that he didn't really expect us to complete it when he suggested that we prepare a written report.

Benniganahalli RUB progress!

 Hi,

Would anyone know, why the work at Benniganahalli RUB (Road under bridge) widening has almost stopped?

Screening - new documentary from CSE

16 Jul 2010 18:30
16 Jul 2010 20:30
Asia/Calcutta

Invitation to a screening of MEAN SEA LEVEL, 58 Minutes, Stereo

Friday, July 16, 2010
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Alliance Francaise De Bangalore
Thimmaaih Road, Vasantnagar
Bangalore, India

July Bus day - My best bus experience yet!!

To me, today was the best bus day experience till-date. I travel by bus pretty often, so i must add that I have not had any more comfortable experience before.

I dont travel on the Bus Day focus corridors, travelling from Girinagar to office near Forum mall. I can travel by just one change (two buses), but always prefer to change more often than wait for specific buses. I just take any route that goes in the direction I am headed to.

Left home near Girinagar at 7:55AM. Reached the bus stop in no time. Had breakfast at a darshini bang next to the bus stop. Less than a couple of minutes of wait (8:05AM), I had a majestic bound bus arriving at the bus stop. Got down at Hanumantanagar and took a Shivajinagar bound bus (no wait time today, but usually 3-5 mins wait there). Got down at Lalbagh main gate, and in about 30 seconds time boarded a Anekal bound bus. Got down at Forum Mall a little before 8:40AM and walked into office by 8:45AM...

Brownfield incremental cities

Brownfield incremental cities

The challenge for India is to write a new chapter in low-cost urban development, the way it has done in wireless telephony and automobiles (Nano) writes Subir Roy

Why did I post this under Commuter Rail? Because it ties in very well with what we are trying to say. Commuter rail infrastructure costs afraction of the fortune we spend today as most of it is already available. Incremental investment in mordenization of signaling and operations is all that is required to make it efficient. If one picked the cities identified in this report, connect them to Bangalore and did all that the author is trying to say, we can have a world class ecosystem up and running in no time.5 years tops.

Is the govt listening? Are the bearucrats up to it?

Citizen participation in governance

Can non IAS/Politico citizens add value to governance?

Dozens of dapperly dressed young people gathered to attend a conference entitled, "Exploring Spaces for Young Indians in Government."

Suri, who is spending the summer assisting the office of Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications and Technology, is among the growing ranks of young Indians who are showing an increasing interest in exploring careers in public policy and government - areas in which Indian civil servants have had a historical monopoly.

Counter-intuitively, the majority of the attendees were young people comfortably ensconced in private sector jobs. If these two things are anything to go by, then it strongly signals a slow but steady shift in the years and decades to come, towards a younger, more inclusive and level playing field in India's governing fabric, which will ultimately bode well for its nation-building project.

A new "How To" feature on Praja - your suggestions

Dear readers, and supporters of Praja. We have started a new drive to better organize and present content contributed by users on this website. As part of that, we are planning a new "how to" self-help feature on Praja.in. Examples of "how to" would be things like - "how do I apply for khata", or "how to buy a BMTC monthly pass", or "how to complain about an overcharging auto", basicaly just about any experience that we can share around in dealing with govt or public agencies. Please provide your review and feedback to help tune this feature.

Quick Description:

Conductors of BMTC reusing already sold or old tickets.

I happen to take the BMTC bus everyday to my office, however recently i encountered a situation where the conductor handed out a used ticket to me instead of tearing a new ticket from the foil. By the look of the ticket even a lame man could say that its an old ticket with traces of sand and dirt and torn edges. When i questioned him about the issue of old ticket he refused to accept his mistake and said it to be a freshly torn ticket. I was so helpless and did not get support from any of the so-passengers and had to return with the same ticket. This has not happened only to me and when discussed with some of my friends, they also complained of having faced the same issue earlier.

These conductors are not only causing a loss to the BMTC but also to the passengers, the situation is worse when some illiterates or school children alight the buses, many a times the conductors take the money and not issue the ticket for short distances thus pocketing the extra money into their personal account which actually belongs to the BMTC.

This could rather be called a daylight theft.

Some authority needs to look into this and get this right immediately...

Corruption in the BMTC - Tickets

Tickets not issued in BMTC buses -  The conductor asks commuters to opt for ticketless travel, by paying an amount lesser than the ticket value. Surprisingly, this is a regular practice.

High petrol prices - 59% levies in Bangalore, where does it all go?

[Promoting Transmogrifier's comment to a separate 'crowdsourcing' post - we need to know what is happening to the various taxes and cess that makes petrol so expensive for us. 59% of fuel price is levies, where is it all going today? Do share if you know.]

@ PublicAgenda, while conspiracy theorists make for good movie-making, it's time (like many here are suggesting) that we look at why we pay so much as in the way of levies (59%?) and much worse, get so little. Let's take two examples:

1. In one of the most capitalistic of societies, federal and state taxes, on average, are about 45.6c/gallon (for petrol) or 16.7% at today's price of unleaded petrol. What do you get for that? For 18.4c out of that (or 6-7%) you get 75,000 km of Interstate system on which you could cover 950km (that's the distance to Chennai... and back...and then back again) in 9.5hrs.



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