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

7 July 2010 - 10:25am — Transmogrifier
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

5 July 2010 - 4:02pm — deepakar
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

5 July 2010 - 12:54pm — indian
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?

5 July 2010 - 10:28am — silkboard
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.

Where are those GIM projects?

5 July 2010 - 12:00am — silkboard
Economy

After all the tamasha, a global meet attended mostly by Indians, and those concerns looming around equitable use of natural resources and land acquisition, it is all the more important for state government to share as much follow up information on GIM announcements as possible. But the GIM website as gone cold (no updates after June 4!) and as always, we are at the mercy of our journalist friends to know more.

Business Standard covered GIM last week, twice. First time on June 21, Karnataka clears 69 new investment proposals. Exceprts:

SHLCC .... cleared 69 new industrial investment proposals worth Rs 87,494 crore. This was the first meeting of SHLCC after the recently concluded global investors’ meet (GIM).

Wonder where to find minutes of SHLCC meetings

IGI Airport Vs BIAL

3 July 2010 - 5:01pm — Sanjeev
AviationPublic Transport

PM unveils world's 6th largest terminal at IGI Airport

Delhi today got a spanking new world-class Rs 9,000 crore airport that will integrate domestic and international operations and is expected to handle 34 million passengers annually

ಮಹಾತ್ಮಾ ಗಾಂಧಿಯವರ ಜನ್ಮ ಸ್ಥಳದಲ್ಲಿ ಸತ್ಯದ ಕೊಲೆ?

3 July 2010 - 8:41am — mbnataraj
EnforcementTraffic
ಮಹಾತ್ಮಾ ಗಾಂಧಿಯವರ ಜನ್ಮ ಸ್ಥಳದಲ್ಲಿ ಸತ್ಯದ ಕೊಲೆ
ಇತ್ತೀಚಿನ ಒಂದು ಘಟನೆಯೇ ಈ ಆಲೋಚನೆಗೆ  ಮೂಲ ಕಾರಣ.
ಮೊದಲನೆಯ ನೋಟಕ್ಕೆ ಇದು ಅಷ್ಟು ದೊಡ್ಡ ಅಪರಾಧವೆಂದು ಅನ್ನಿಸದು.
ಆದರೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಆಲೋಚನೆ ಮಾಡಿ ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಈ ಬಗೆಯ ಸಣ್ಣ ಸಣ್ಣ ದಿನಂಪ್ರತಿ ಆಗುವ ಮತ್ತು ನಾವು
ತಡೆದು ಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿರುವ ಪ್ರಸಂಗಗಳಿಂದಲೇ ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶ ಹಾಳಾಗುತ್ತಿರುವ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಕಾರಣವನ್ನು   ಕಾಣ ಬಹುದು.
ಎರಡು ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಕೆಳಗೆ ನನ್ನ ಮಗನ ದ್ವಿಚಕ್ರ ವಾಹನ ಶಿರಸ್ತ್ರಾಣ ಧರಿಸದೆ ನಡಿಸುತ್ತಿದ ಉಲ್ಲಂಘನೆಯ ಸೂಚನೆ ಬಂತು.
ಕಾನೂನು ಪರಿಪಾಲನೆಯ ಕರ್ತವ್ಯದ ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣ ಅರಿವಿದ್ದ ಅವನನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿದಾಗ ಸಾಧ್ಯವೇ ಇಲ್ಲವೆಂದು ಹೇಳಿದ.
ಆದರೂ ಅಕಸ್ಮಾತ್ ಅವನ ಸ್ನೇಹಿತರು ಯಾರಾದರೂ ಒಂದು ಕ್ಷಣ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗಿದ್ದರೆ ಹೊಗಿರಬಹುದೆಂಬ ಸಣ್ಣ
ಸಂಶಯದಿಂದ ಕೇವಲ ೧೦೦ ರೂಪಾಯಿ ಎಂದು ಕಟ್ಟಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟೆ.
ಈಗ ಒಂದು ವರ್ಷದ ಹಿಂದೆ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಅದೇ ದಿವಸ, ಅದೇ ಸಮಯಕ್ಕೆ ಅದೇ ಸ್ಥಳದಲ್ಲಿ ಅದೇ ಉಲ್ಲಂಘನೆ ಆದರೆ ಸೆಲ್ ಫೋನ್ ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸುತ್ತಿದ ಉಲ್ಲಂಘನೆಯೋಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ಬಂದಿತು.
ಆದರೆ ಈ ಬಾರಿ ಈ ಸೂಚನೆಯನ್ನು ನಂಬುವುದಕ್ಕೆ  ಒಂದೇ ತೊಂದರೆ. ನನ್ನ ಮಗ ಅಮೇರಿಕಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದ. 
ಆ ಸ್ಕೂಟರ್ನ  ಏಕೈಕ   ಚಾಲಕಿ ನನ್ನ  ಮಗಳು ಅದೇ  ಸಮಯಕ್ಕೆ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲೇ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ವರಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಿ ವ್ರತ, ಗೃಹ ಪ್ರವೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುತ್ತಿದಳು.

Kadugodi flyover - almost ready

2 July 2010 - 5:12pm — admin
Infrastructure

Since good number of members have sent petitions, DPAR complaints, RTIs and what not to chase status of this bridge, it feels good to see the flyover nearing completion.

Consumer Court experience

2 July 2010 - 4:31pm — murali772
Governance

Given the choice, very few amongst the middle and upper classes in the country will ever want to have anything to do with the government or its agencies, plainly because they lack the basic 'technology' of handling them.

Accountability of our emergency helplines

2 July 2010 - 1:09pm — deepakar
Governance

Here's my experience with the Police emergency phone number, 100, that makes me pray that nobody ever has any emergency.



Last Saturday, I was returning by train from Thanjavur. While the train was waiting for a clearance to enter the railway station, I heard some commotion outside. Two guys, at least one of them very drunk, were fighting. The inebriated one was lying on the tracks (and hardly moving) and the other man was beating him up. This was at 4 AM and it was still pretty dark. Sensing danger to their lives if a train happened to approach on that track the passengers from my coach urged them to move away from the rails. Since they didn't pay heed, I decided to call the police helpline 100.



My first reaction when the lady answered the phone was surprise at the complete lack of urgency in her tone and voice. I explained the situation to her, and she asked me to call the railway police. There was no answer from that number so I dialed 100 again and got to speak to the same lady. This time she asked me to call the general railway helpline 197!



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