April 2010

Traffic alerts on signboards - Variable Message Signboards (VMS)

8 April 2010 - 9:18am — vlnarayan

DH Reports :

Bangalore, the first City in the country to have Variable Message Signboards (VMS) on roads and junctions.

Four VMS were commissioned at Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road, Airport Road at Hebbal (two signboards - one towards airport and another towards City) and K R Puram (towards City). These boards are connected to Traffic Management Centre (TMC).

The Variable Message Signboards help alert travelling public about prevailing condition on roads ahead and also help them choose alternative directions to reach their destination.

According to the Home Minister V S Acharya, the City traffic police will install another 16 VMS soon. The City police have utilised funds sanctioned under B-Track.

Renewing DL at the RTO without touts/bribes

8 April 2010 - 11:22am — s_yajaman

My wife and I went yesterday to the Indiranagar RTO to renew her DL. As soon as we stepped into "the zone" there were touts offering help. We, of course, ignored them and walked up to the RTO.

As we walked up we realized that my wife's DL said "RTO BNG CENTRAL" (Koramangala) and we wondered what trouble that would mean. But we decided to check anyway.

There was a helpdesk there. It was operational. We asked the lady there if we could renew the license here. She gave us the forms and asked us to check at Window 3 if it was possible. We also realized there was a medical fitness certificate (completely in Kannada) to be got from a doctor.

At Window 3 there was a reasonably helpful lady. She told my wife that it was possible to do it there. She confirmed if the address remained unchanged. She asked us to write a letter requesting that the license be renewed there.

We paid the Rs.250 fee at the cash counter and my wife went to get her MC done.

Karnataka State pollution control board (KSPCB) - active?

8 April 2010 - 2:37pm — manjari

They have 10 offices in Bangalore alone (isnt that good news ;)
They have a lot of laboratories which are set up for KSPCB for data analysis and data gathering.

The site says "Samples collected by the Regional Offices of the Board, Industries, Organizations and from general public are analysed."
When i read this I only get evil ideas (evil because it might not be fun for a lot of people)

They have listed a number of parameter that they analyze.
Industrial waste water has: 41 parameters
Air: 6 parameters
Water: 26 parameters.

They have things like "monthly avg result of national ambient air quality" and "classification of river water quality as per GEMS and MINARS"
The only small, tiny winy problem is they have failed to update any new reports and the last one is of 2007.

The last annual plan has been put up for year 2006-2007.

So I have a simple question, what happened to KSPCB? Does it exist? If it does then where are the reports?
If they have reports then cant we file RTI to get it?

Local Trains vs Circular Rail For Bangalore

8 April 2010 - 5:17pm — Sanjeev

Analysis of last three months discussion and media briefing by Shri MoS K H Muniyappa and CM Yeddiyurappa shows that MoS is favouring Circular Rail and CM is talking of Local Trains similar to Mumbai.

Now we will see one more round of study by SWR / Railways for Circular Railway and wasting time on this. RITES study on Local Trains is not considered by MoS K H Muniyappa and no one is talking of this.

Do any one have the details on Circular Rail what MoS K H Muniyappa is talking. We from Praja need to do some serious work so that both proposal Local Trains and Circular Train services are sanctioned for Bangalore.

The Lok Satta Party public interactions meet with JP

7 April 2010 - 12:29pm — psaram42

After the recent BBMP election JP is visiting Bangalore in carrying forward the new party’s agenda. This interaction reminded us the probable scenario which might have prevailed at the time of freedom struggle. The fight now is against the middle class apathy ignorance and above all their pretence to know best according to JP.

JP stressed on the importance of local government. An increase in per capita income alone may make the country rich but still a banana republic. He felt that with proper management the malaise like power cuts etc can be avoided altogether.

To days scenario highlights the viciously guarded statues quo by our politicians. The confused nonchalance and apathy of the voters is a boon to them. Many levels of changes are needed. JP alluded to the two major types of corruption, the extortional and collusive type of corruption. Both kind of corruption are to be tackled.

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