murali772's blog

If private medical colleges hire house surgeons to hoodwink Medical Council of India inspectors, it’s malpractice. But what if the government itself pushes through ‘standby transfers’ during MCI inspections and submits a report that new government medical colleges meet the governing body’s guidelines?
    
Medical education minister Ramachandra Gowda first termed this a ‘sensitive issue’ but then said the government was trying to save students who had got admission. Later, he insisted he didn’t want to comment on the issue.
    
The fact is the government issued 15 transfer orders of senior residents, lecturers, assistant professors and professors between January 16 and March 6 this year. In each transfer order, seven to nine faculty members were transferred from established medical institutions like Bangalore Medical College and KIMS, Hubli to new colleges in Hassan, Mandya, Shimoga and other places.
    

The movie brought out the scenario fairly well, but which most on Praja are quite aware of.

During the discussions that followed, I brought up the matter of the reported 40% odd losses, largely on account of the inefficiencies/ mismanagement in distribution (compared to less than 10% in an efficient system), and followed it up with a suggestion "if the kind of contract entered into between Mysore City Corporation and JUSCO, was not the way to address the issue?".

Prof Mohan Kumar (Civil Engg Dept, IISc) responded saying a study/ survey had been conducted by L&T and Anglian Waters (or, one of the other foreign players - I am not quite sure which) a few years back covering some parts of Bangalore (I thought I heard the name Fraser Town mentioned) at a cost of Rs 32 crores - did he mention World Bank funded?. He did not mention if any work was actually undertaken. But, went on to add that it raised all kinds of technical issues, like "how do you replace the pipes in an area like Avenue road, etc?"

The poor turnout in the posh areas of the city and the general voter apathy was cause enough for several politicians to spit fire at Bangalore, and to hint that if people did not turn out to vote they had no right to criticise the ruling class. For the full report in the New Indian Express, click here

The Transport Minister in-charge of Bangalore, R Ashok, scolded people for watching films and going to restaurants instead of voting and called for making voting compulsory.“IT is a shame on part of educated people. I don’t know why these people have no time even to come to polling stations to elect a right candidate" he added.

This was organised by Janaagraha's Jaagte Raho campaign at 6 PM on Friday, the 19th Mar, at the Town Hall, Bengaluru, in the background of the BBMP elections being held on the coming Sunday (28th March,'10)  

On infrastructure
From Mr R V Deshpande of Congress to Ms Shabha Karandlaje to Mr Narayanaswamy of JD(S), all made claims of how they were responsible for building up the infrastructure for the city - from the Hebbal fly-over to the K R Puram cable-stayed fly-over, to the signal-free corridors, etc, etc. Towards the end, when a question raised by a participant as to 'where the pedestrian came into view in all of these', was put to them, suddenly, each made a u-turn and started talking about how they plan to make the city totally pedestrian and cycle friendly.

Well, to symbolise the entire polity's commitment to this changed approach, can a consensus be possibly arrived at to demolish the totally useless National College fly-over, apart from of course dropping the Tagore circle underpass and such useless projects?

On corruption

Knowing me to be a tree lover, members of the local coomunity keep calling asking to know as to what is to be done when they notice trees being felled in their neighborhood, the latest being the above massacre of 4 full-grown trees (very similar to the one that has been spared - seen at the extreme right of the picture) on the 100 ft road in Indiranagar (just North of the pedestrian over-bridge at the end of the fly-over).

Now, if the process is still under way when you come upon it, what you need to do is detailed in the ESG web-site, which may be accessed here. I have myself followed this a couple of times, and succeeded in limiting the damage considerably.

But, if the damage has already occured, like in the above instance, you could perhaps file a query under the RTI Act, on the lines of the one I am going to be filing pertaining to the instant case, as below, and forward a copy to ESG.

Faced with accumulated losses of Rs 7,200 crore, national carrier Air India's deteriorating condition has forced the government to push for privatisation of the carrier. While the UPA government does not favour strategic sale, the civil aviation ministry and the Air India management are likely to consider a piecemeal approach to privatisation.

The Indian railway system continues to be in a crisis since it has kept the winds of liberalization at bay, said Lok Satta Party President Dr Jayaprakash Narayan said here today. When Delhi let go its stranglehold on airports and sea ports and permitted States to promote them, the country has witnessed a dramatic growth in the two sectors.

Attempting an image makeover after opposing most major projects in her home state of West Bengal, railway minister Mamata Banerjee seemed to be going over the top in a bid to privatize every sector of the Indian Railways.