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"
They didnt mention if everyone can contribute and if they want to then where to go or what to do.
Hopefully they will make the process also transparent so that we get a good idea about how the evaluation is done.
In any case, an excellent initiative!
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Comments
Manjari, thanks and welcome back!
Manjari,
Welcome back.
Thanks for sharing this news. Hope many of us would join you in this endeavor tracking this initiative.
Also nice to see you back on PRAJA. Kudos to yours and your team's effort in working with BMTC and laying the foundation for the regular Bus Day feast every month.
Keep up the good work and all the best.
Syed
Another Positive Development
Good of TOI to come up with this - let's see how Bangalore patrol works.
Bangalore patrol, the likes of Nandan Nilenkani & Shashi Taroor getting into govt, the emergence of a clean party like Lok sattta - all these are indications that we are finally stirring & will begin to proceed soon on the long route ahead.
The main stumbling block at each step is of course severe poverty with so many BPL families, to whom Sanitation, Environment, Public amenities, etc. don't mean anything. Their needs are far more basic such as food, water & shelter.
good one, read with interest
Definitely liked the announcement and read it with interest. Parts of it sound very similar to the index ideas we have discussed and here, and finally have some traction on with water and transport one.
If they are indeed building indices, though they may be doing that at the ward level, and are open to sharing and collaboration with freelance volunteers who hang around here, members of water (and upcoming public transport) index projects should connect with them.