In the case of Bangalore, the BMLTA has been instituted, though it is still in the form of a sub-committee of another Committee, as averred by none less than Mr Ravindra, Dy Chairman, State Planning Commission, himself, at the seminar. There is a proposal to strengthen and broad-base it.
That was what I had posted here in Jan'08. A lot of water has flowed down the Cauvery since then. But, the BMLTA continues even today as an 'authority' without any authority. Any discussion on PRAJA, pertaining to traffic (and, a large percentage is on that), ultimately lands up with the immediate need to empower the BMLTA adequately.
But, why is that just not happening, even as you have all kinds of entities like ABIDe, B-TRAC, CityConnect, etc, whose standing have been questioned by many, pulling in all kinds of directions, apart from the pulls and pushes within the stakeholder agencies themselves.
There are a few theories on why that's not happening. The ones that I have heard are
1) The present Convener is too junior a person compared to the much higher level officials at the helm in BBMP, Traffic Police, BMTC, etc, over whose functioning he is supposed to lord over. The answer to that may perhaps be to have the Chief Secretary as the 'Super Convener' and the present incumbent as the 'Executive Convener'.
2) The babu/ neta lot on top do not want to give up control over their respective turfs. The city is suffering badly, and this cannot be allowed to remain a factor.
Now, which ever way you look at it, this appears to be the most urgent need of the day. Perhaps the civil society needs to put in all its combined effort at pushing for it. Any idea how to go about it?
Muralidhar Rao
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Murali Sir, I totally agree with you !
Murali Sir,
I totally agree with you on "..Now, which ever way you look at it, this appears to be the most urgent need of the day. Perhaps the civil society needs to put in all its combined effort at pushing for it..."
Let's brainstorm tonight on this.
Syed
'Authorities' only to waste public money?
Yes Sir
One cannot fathom the whims and fancies of these temporary politicians who keep creating authorities/committees to 'examine issues that relate to ground level concerns of all citizens'?
We had BATF - burried alive ( I was a grassroots level Shuchi Mitra and taught enough gentlemen/ladies in Rajajinagar area to behave themselves after 9 PM when they would be dumping their unseggregated household 'holasu' in front of somebody's house and those animal/ 'dog lovers' not to make their she dogs shit all over - that is history now - I was also one of those who were being invited to the annual Sumits of BATF when I used to grill them with direct shots without getting satisfactory answers).
And a host of others as Murali Sir has pointed out. Reports of any number of such bodies containing valuable recommendations are lying in the ghettos of BBMP / Secretariat.
Let us have some realistic, accountable and transparent body with single window clearance system. Otherwise, we will be banging our heads against too many walls of such committee reports. Take them out, brush the dust, read the fine prints, create a master piece volume of recommendations that may be relevant even today and help ourselves. Stop this mad scramble to accommodate and satisfy a section of sympathisers within the politicos.
-Vasanth Mysoremath
Lets talk to the horses
A lot has been said about BMLTA and we all know that such a body with be the one stop solution to all of namma Bengaluru's transportation problems - atleast i see it that way (a unified body with powers spanning across various government agencies - BBMP, BTA, BDA, BMTC, BMRCL, etc.,).
The last time we talked to Mr Gaurav Gupta, Commisioner, BMLTA - he assured us that things were moving in the right direction, and he requested us to have the some patience. Ok that is one thing that we Bengalurians are running out off - every day BMLTA is being delayed, more and more irreversible mistakes are being done by the other agencies.
BMLTA in its current form is a tooth less body which is there just to satisfy the conditions for JNNRUM funds (Till date only Hyderabad has passed the LTA act in their state assembly). I am not sure if someone is even working on the BMLTA law that has to be passed by the assembly for BMLTA to get its powers.
Here are some of the reasons that i believe are causes for the delay in the drafting and enforcing the BMLTA act -
A better way to understand why BMLTA is not functioning as it should have, should we talk to the horses itself? We can ask them what is causing the delay.
We have waited enough, it think its time we build pressure, so that things start moving. Should we also start meeting/writing to our Local MLAs to ask them to take up this issue.
If i am not mistaken, LTA is a must for the city to get JNNRUM funds. We could file RTIs with the central government requesting information on whether the cities (like Bangalore) are statisfying the requirements for receiveing funds under JNNRUM scheem. We could also ask the state government to give us the status of the BMLTA ACT.
BMLTA is the route to change the status quo!
VKM sir,
Your statements "..And a host of others as Murali Sir has pointed out. Reports of any number of such bodies containing valuable recommendations are lying in the ghettos of BBMP / Secretariat.
Let us have some realistic, accountable and transparent body with single window clearance system..." seems to be contradicting the view point you are trying to convey.
Every govt authority and agency would fail, if those who are given the responsibility doesn't do justice to their appointments. It also be a failure if those for whom these are created also don't do justice to their participation as a civil society.
Where do we go from this "Damn we do it, damn we don't do it" state? Keep trying is the mantra for success, but with not repeating the earlier mistakes.
BMLTA is one such try again step. Now that citizen's attention has turned governance and civic administration, it is time to add more energy and enthusiasm to accelerate its speed.
Any development work in the sphere of Bangalore's transport is taken up, whether we like it or not, it gets stuck in multiple agency turf wars. BMTC is the only service provider for Bangalore's PT needs. But it can not do any radical changes, because it has to depend for everything from Transport ministry to BBMP, BDA like agencies. Even for a bus stop it has to depend on whims and fancies of BBMP. Bangalore Traffic police depends on BBMP for making the needed changes in junctions and roads.
So what is the fundamental problem here? The problem is each civic agency is being mandated and nurtured to operate in their own world and culture of cooperating with other agencies is almost absent. No policy frame work that outlines the process of interfacing with each other. This is the culture that we all need to demolish and eliminate.
Coming back to BMLTA, as Ritesh mentioned in his post, it is a powerless authority which has no powers what so ever. But if we carefully look at its noble charter, it fits right into what the Praja has been saying for almost a year or more. Therefore we all should put pressure on GOK to empower the BMLTA to provide the necessary PT infrastructure. How do we do it?
What should BMLTA do?
http://www.slideshare.net/kbsyed61/road-based-public-transport-v1
I hope this presentation answers that question.