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Brownfield incremental cities

Commuter RailPublic Transport

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

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

Praja related

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.

BusPublic Transport

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

BusPublic Transport

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?

Infrastructure

[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.

Praja Blogathon 2011

Project number:3583
Opened by:deepakar
Opened on:Monday, 5 July 2010 - 4:02pm
Last modified:Friday, 8 July 2011 - 2:48pm
Operations:add Case | view all project cases
Civic issue oriented Online blogging competition with great prizes and exposure for winning entries

This is the project group to organize Praja Blogathon, a Civic issue theme based online blogging competition.

Say no to road widening in Bangalore - Petitions

InfrastructurePedestrian Infrastructure

40,000 properties in Bangalore are likely to be demolished to widen 227 roads by displacing 38,000 to 2 lakh people for private vehicles. Pedestrians have no footpaths to walk. Road widenings must be stopped. Homes, properties and livelihoods of the citizens must be saved. Roads should be accessible for all sections of society.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/no-to-road-widening-in-bangalore

(Fully featured and comprehensive version)

http://www.petitiononline.com/roadwide/

(Patially featured and condensed version)

Twitter Tweet
http://bit.ly/d8EaOI http://petol.org/roadwide - Say no to road widening in Bangalore - Petitions

Why should I support this Bandh?

Politics

Why should I be forced to support a strike call (bandh) that I don't agree with? Where is my freedom of expression? Why is my office shut? Why is my son's school shut as well? Are the officea and schools shut because they support the bandh, or are they 'scared'? Why can state government not guarantee rule of law on general bandh day? Real shame in today's day and age, such "goonda-giri' driven bandhs are the most farcical tools of public vote in a democracy.

Leaving aside the "how can a ruling party support a strike" thing and talking specifics, what is wrong  with total decontrol of fuel pricess to let the market forces rule? Kerosene price rise can be buffered towards a gradual decontrol, but the public needs to alter their fuel usage pattern - shift the burden away from fossils - and energy companies need that push to innovate.

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