Really, what a pitiful statement, only 13000 people. Overstaffed and undermanaged are two words that come to mind.

And the local elections have only added 100 more people to the mix, with little tangible improvements in the service levels.

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Every other thing is expanding, every other thing around us is advancing, all the roads are getting widened, buildings are built and flyovers are done, but why not staff. This is not only at BBMP, the same is the story with BMTC or Traffic police. Why can't they use the funds (JNNURM or any other) in hiring a few people and make the work done which have been pending because of the reason of lack of staff.

Every other time when we complain to BMTC, they say lack of staff, when we go to Mr, Sood, he also says that with the limited staff, thye have to manage the whole city, now listening all that, BMTC is only interested in building TTMC but why can't they hire a few more drivers and conductors and make the current driver-conductor's shoulder a little light. Same is the case with BBMP, they can generate some revenue by taking parking fee per year, but how will they get in working without the enough staff and without the abled staff. Traffic police dept can't keep cops on busy signals to enforce the rules and penalize the offenders on regular basis, you always see on major signals (I have seen on ORR couple of times), a constable is generally standing in middle of the intersection and trying to manage the traffic and 2-3 other higher level cops in white dress (very physically abled) are sitting on their bike and waiting to give reciept to a few offenders brought by another middle-abled policeman. That's how it happens at all the major junctions. If they hire good staff, they can really very well manage traffic.

The best part of this efficient use of funds is that govt will be able to increase some employment, and which is what very much necessary, and that will automatically lessen a few crimes if not much.

Deepak

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13,000 becomes a much smaller number real quick when you consider only 5% show up to work.... How about adding 1,00,000 more so we can get 5,000 to come to work?

Per this recent Bangalore Mirror Article:

Reddy (chairman of BBMP’s Establishment and Administrative Reforms Committee)

said, “I visited BBMP’s Bangalore east and Dasarahalli zone offices and found just 5 and 4 per cent attendance, respectively

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from City of Houston Public Works Department.

Staff:

The Public Works and Engineering Department is staffed with a trained work force of approximately 3,900 employees..... The annual operating budget of the department is approximately $1.2 billion. 

What they do:

The City of Houston Public Works and Engineering Department provides many of the basic services that affect the daily lives of everyone who lives and works in Houston. Primarily, the department is responsible for all the things we take for granted on a daily basis: the administration, planning, maintenance, construction management and technical engineering of the City's infrastructure. This includes the production and distribution of over 146 billion gallons of water per year and the treatment of over 90 billion gallons per year of wastewater..... It also includes the maintenance of the City's over 16,000 lane miles of streets, over 60,000 stormwater manholes, over 100,000 stormwater inlets, over 900,000 street name and traffic control signs, over 17,000 freeway and under bridge light fixtures, over 50,000 fire hydrants and traffic signals at over 2,000 intersections

So, that includes a part of what our BWSSB does. But a typical Houstonian thinks the City is very inefficient though.

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The comparison is inevitable. In Houston, 3900 people manage what our BBMP's 13,000 people do, and a lot more, and in a far more efficient way, for a comparable size. So, it's not a question of how many people are deployed, but how efficiently they are deployed.

@dvsquare  -  The BBMP's functions are set to increase a lot more going by the recommendations of the 74th amendment. If they start employing people directly to manage all these, you'll need a work force the size of Indian Railways currently has. And, they will all land up as the 'labour aristocracy' (that I have talked about here), and the attendance percentage will drop even below the levels reported by BM. So, that's clearly not the answer. The answer is outsourcing, which is what every sensible administration does, including that of Houston.

The same applies to policing, as also every other government function.
 

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 So, it's not a question of how many people are deployed, but how efficiently they are deployed.

Good point & that was what I intended to highlight in the  blog post. In Mr Soods case he has deployed technology & used cameras and reduced the dependence of lower end manpower to a certain extent. Usage of that infrastructure is left to the capability of the people in the department. Instead of spending on hiring 1000 pourakarmikas, outsource the cleaning contract & hire a few inspectors who will manage the contract & oversee the outcomes. So paying a little more & hiring higher skilled people who will take responsibility is better than hiring 1000 people who will lack qualified responsible leadership. Now the quality of inspectors is what the first part of the blog (news report) intends to highlight. Focus needs to be on people who arent just hanging out for a free lunch/coffee.

Now why do the corporations complain of understaffing? because when responsibilities are thrust on them by infrastructure creating agencies, it does not come with an attendant hiring/capacity building plan. It is expected that the corporations will manage their ship efficiently. Every new initiative from a road to a flyover should have an O&M plan attached (from the corporation) which will specify who is repsponsible for the maintenance of that infrastructure and how many more people it will need wether thru hiring or thru outsourcing contract. 

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 More BBMP productivity stories here

Among them were a Rs6.95-lakh cheque dated March 31, 2010 in favour of the welfare officer (south) for reimbursement of educational tour for SC/ST for 2009-10, a Rs2.17-lakh cheque to the director of government press dated December 8, 2010, and a Rs2.79-lakh cheque dated February, 28, 2010.

Since the cheques have only six months’ validity, they have been wasted, said a committee member. 

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Some BBMP employees and contracters have fudged bills worth nearly Rs 36 lakh

"what’s shocking is that the engineers don’t even spare their own institution. This office complex is being built to create more space. Instead of saving the BBMP money, they prefer to fleece the organisation"

What a shame, they should be paraded on donkeys with placards around their necks

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Last year I payed house tax at Bangalore one centre at HSR layout and it took just flat 2 mts. Now when I went there they said, with a wink that BBMP has still not authorised them though from 9th april it was supposed to start.Reason you guessed it. At ARO offices one has to pay money to collect forms and also for filling it correctly in Kannda.

  The online system is so archaic that it will not accept if you have the old ward number and it will not accept old receipts paid under old ward numbers and again with 5% concession etc.One must log in to see the difficulty and the reason you guessed it.

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...Police sources say everyone prefers to remain silent on the activities councillors indulge in. According to police sources, several corporators are involved in extortion, illegal finance, land dealings and tampering with government tender processes to benefit their followers

Source

Decide if your elected representative deserves your respect at all. He is in it for the money unless he can prove otherwise.

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However, Sharadamma who is waiting for her visa, does not know for what reason she is attending the summit and what benefits it may dole out. “Yes, I am going to the conference in New York, but I do not know the details of the discussion. I will get to know only when I reach there,”

Source

“We will be leaving the city on November 1 and return after a week,”

Why should the exchequer fund a week when the summit is only for 3 days... here is the program schedule. Do we not have enough business in Bangalore? What is the criteria for choosing these trips? Especially when the participant doesnt know the agenda of the summit. To add insult to injury Bangalore isnt even in the list of 21 participating cities. Begs the question does the mayor even have an invite or are they going to gatecrash for lunch?

No matter how much business you attract if you cant build infrastructure properly businesses will leave. She should go to Infrastructure engineering & maintenance conference or a tour of basic city infrastucture in developed countries. 

being a woman she cannot travel alone with a party of men. Hence, she has requested Shantakumari to accompany her.... This time, (husband Ramanjeneya)  is also leaving with her to New York, but he is using his personal money.

I guess her husband travelling doesnt make her comfortable enough so she can burden the taxpayer with an escort.

We citizens are a bunch of jokers to put up with this. When are we ever going to get real mayors  who can provide some thought leadership to this starved city?

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Mayor Shardamma has just returned from New York and guess what she learnt from the junket? That the “Indian currency is not accepted in America” and that is why she could not buy anything there

Source

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Along with incompetence people need to be told how all the scam artistes, which include the "elected representatives", in the BBMP are protecting the loot... Siddaiah has been moved out on the eve of a BBMP council meeting to discuss the inquiry into the tender scam. (read) ...Many corporators were under pressure from some city-based MLAs to scuttle the probe," a senior corporator told (source) 

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Even though they getting Siddiah removed..the extremely competent technical teams go on strike aposing effort on digging out their dirt..

more here

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To be honest - no one will notice they are on strike. The work on the footpaths of Malleswaram - 15th Cross has been going on for a year. And for the last couple of months there has been no movemont. Of course what happens is that since they do things so slowly the temporary structures get damaged and the open drains get clogged - so then of course they have to contract out someone to clean them up...

BBMP seems to be a completely rotten organization. There was some talk about Citizen involvement in accountability of projects but that does not seem to have happened as far as I am aware.

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I am trying to be positive, there is no way you can reform this organization. Collapse all utilities into a single entity reporting to a directly elected mayor.

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Final-f***ing-ly we get to the point

Fed up with the crumbling infrastructure in the city, industry leaders will urge Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar to dissolve the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)

Source

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nuthing is going to happen..as BBMP is a big cash cow for the politicos as well and who would bring down a money tree!?

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It may be recalled here that the  Belgaum City Corporation (BCC) had bagged the Green Leaf Award 2011 in the category of ‘Best Garbage Disposal’. The BCC was also the first in the state to launch a bio-medical waste management project in Khasbag. - - - Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited has been handed the contract for processing organic waste into organic manure. Now, the BC is all set to implement waste to energy technology including bio-methanisation plants.

For the full report in the New Indian Express, click here.

Well, a little sister city in our own state is a "Green Leaf" award winner, even as the giant sister has earned world-wide notoriety as the garbage city. Also, while our politicos try to palm off the blame on Ramky, the very same Ramky has helped bag the award for the little sister.

Perhaps time for the citizens too to join in the call, first by the Chief Justice, and now the industry leaders, for the dissolution of the BBMP council.

 

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