Dear Sudarshan,

First of all, welcome to Praja. Nice to see a professionals wing in Congress. Is this bloggers group going to be at a Congress run website? Any moderation planned? And I also feel that without local focus, the blogs tend to be opinionated and tend to get into non-fact based discussions and arguments. Any plan to avoid getting into that loop?

regards,

SB aka Pranav

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As per my conversation with Mr Mantri I understand the congress forum will have a stricter moderation in line with the party's policies & anyone who wants to discuss issues which they cant on that site can do so on Praja as well, which Mr Mantri will see from time to time & pick at his discretion, while what is posted on the congress site will be viewable to all the party members. 

This is a good initiative & I hope other parties will have such transparent discussions on issues as well. If the site is already live pl post the link here

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@Pranav: Thanks for the warm welcome to Praja :-) Yes, this blogger group will be run by young leaders from Congress, such as Priyank Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and the likes. Of course, it will be moderated. to begin with, bloggers can send their blogs over email and then it will go love. Over the next few days, we will give access to the site to these parties wherein they can go and blog directly. Good point about non-fact based. Our plan is to discuss the initiatives of the UPA Govt,. Bloggers are welcome to appreciate good initiatives and are equally welcome to suggest ways and means of improvements fort such initiative which need more focus. It is a matter of courtesy not to indulge in cynicism and personal attacks on leaders. The idea is to steer clear of unwanted controversies. We are hoping that this becomes a healthy exercise rather than an opportunity for individuals to spar at one another. All this will be ensured by a very tight policing. Hope this answers your question.   

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@ Satya. Thanks for that note.  Of course, I will  be happy to take up discussions here on Praja which by its nature may not be possibel on the Congress blog site. 

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Welcome Sudarshan to Praja.

While we discuss a lot here and often come up with what we think are viable solutions to the numerous civic issues facing the city as well as the state, what we have been lacking in is the reach to the powers that be. With your coming on, hopefully, that gap should now stand bridged.

While we have already seen a lot of that happening on the "Namma Railu" front, can I draw your attention to the following too:

1) Undervaluation racketeering - check here
2) Making defamation a civil rather than a criminal offence (action required by Central govt) - check here
3) Single emergency helpline - check here
4) Maintenance of public toilets - check here

I have picked the above subjects, their having been in the news recently. There are a lot more, which you'll see if you browse through the debates.

As such, let us see how best we can jointly pursue reform to its fullest and proper meaning in the interest of all concerned.

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Dear Sudarshan,

Welcome to Praja.  In the list Murali sir has listed, he has left out a topic dear to me (and to Murali as well, I am sure).  As you are aware, many "Professionals" today end up buying apartments.  However, do you know how messed up the state of apartment law in Karnataka is today? This results in huge and un-necessary hardship to a lot of hard working people in the state.

We have existing laws passed 40 years ago which are roundly ignored by everubody, including the government.  In fact, until recently, the state government was not even sure which department was responsible for the laws. 

This is a situation easily remedied if the govt puts its mind to it.

Please see our Apartment Law Project Page here.

Our report on Apartment law here.

Our recommendations submitted to the government earlier this year here.

I would love help from you and your fellow Professionals to bring attention AND action to this important area.  We have done a LOT of homework and have linked up with others who are knowledgeable in this area as well. Can you help? 

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Sudarshan,

Among the wish list I would say please give highest priority to the 'Unified Emergency Response system' in the state as well as in the country. The existing system with dozen different numbers adds salt to the injury with absence of real credible system in place.

Yesterday, in a road accident my cousin's wife got killed and it was almost 8-9 hours before my cousin and their son could be transported to HOSMAT, Bangalore. May be a working emergency response system could have saved the lives. She has left behind a daughter (14 yr) and a son (8 years).

One could blame many entities -

• The anti-Telangana Stir/Bandhs forcing public to use private vehicles often operated by inexperienced drivers
• Unsafe driving by the Trucks/Lorries
• Unsafe provisions on the highways

Before some more lives are lost, lets make an effort to get something that is the need of the hour. There has been many discussions on this topic.

Looking forward to your esteem help.

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Dear Mr Rao, 

Thanks for that note. I too hope to channelize the efforts of Praja by getting the much needed political/govt audience. I will take a look at the links sent by you. Thanks for the same. I know that the public tiolets issue is still pending on my desk :-( Guilty as charged. Thing is that, I am indeed slow in responding to email and blogs, but I do it for sure (sorry about a very weak defence) 

Cheers

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@ Sanjay: I am painfully aware of this issue since I myself reside in an apartment complex. The office bearers of the owners association are known to me very well and they too are experiencing untold hardship. There are so many discrepancies and subjectivity in these bye-laws, mainly due the reason pointed out by you i.e. obsolesce. Periodic review and amendments to laws are required keep them in sync with changing times. I will take a closer look into this and will do my best.

Do stay in touch with me on this. Cheers 

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Hi Syed, its very unfortunate that a life should be lost to a road accidents. My condolences. It is very true that emergency response in India is very poor. Making it all the more complicated are the multiple contact numbers. Some fo these numbers cannot be reached from a cell phone. What we need is a unified SOS contact number that can be reached by anybody calling from anywhere. These lines have to have a very high bandwidth and large capacity hunting lines, with international practices such as DR sites, business continuity plans etc. I will take a look at the ongoing discussion thread ASAP 

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There are several issues and topics that require action from the ... [fill in your favorite organization] and require no discusssion.

If you havent been listening, its too late.

Several active and concerned members have pointed you to problems that need resolving with good governance.

I take it you have no idea of the whats going on in these forums/dicussions and you have simply pasted a template to all such websites in the hope of harvesting prospects.

I hope your organization gets the hits it deserves.

Good luck!

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He wants to promote his party site & has taken the time to talk to us before posting instead of just spamming. Yes you are right he hasnt been on Praja before so he is going to have to catch up on the reading thats why a few of the folks have pointed him to certain issues. Yes he knows not everybody likes the party he is associated with & will have to take comments on open forums like this with the salt it deserves.

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Mr. Mantri,

Thank You very much for persuading CRS with the GoK. CRS is really the need of the hour. Every time when there's a meeting, nothinig concrete comes out except for the CRS file being moved from one deprtment to another. I sincerly hope there would be a good concrete result this time around when you have a schedule with Dr.Parameshwara. I hope the Gok realises what CRS can do for people travelling from Vijaynagar to sarjapur road. I mean it liteally saves 2-3 hours of travelling. Our hope lies on you Mr. Mantri.

Thank You

Prakash

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Sudarshan,

Not sure if ever there will be such a good scenario in future with Congress ruling at both Central and the state, Railway Minister from Karnataka.

It is a known fact that Railway Ministry is highly politicized ministry and there, everything is achieved through politics.

Given these realities, I would urge you and your organization to work with your political connections to ensure that Karnataka not only gets its due share of Railway connectivity, but also gets it people to man important positions in the ministry to ensure that its legitimate needs are not overlooked. In that pursuit, here are my suggestions,

1. Expedite all the pending railway projects in the state without any regional prejudices.
2. Draft a vision plan for increasing the railway connectivity in the state with focus on intra-state travel and goods transport in addition to suburban rail travel in major cities. If needed Praja-RAAG can help you with that draft report.
3. An action plan to implement the vision plan into reality by getting approval from state and the center.
4. Ensure that key post in Railway Ministry, Railway Boards are equally represented by officers from Karnataka.
5. SWR zone should be manned by officers from Karnataka State
6. Mechanism/System in place for public review of railway projects in the state

Yes, this is a toll order. if this had been any easy task, every Tom and Dick would have done it.Therefore an opportunity for you, your organization and people like us to attempt the difficult ones and pave the path for growth and development that is needed and that is sustainable

-Syed

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Perhaps we did not make the best start. You have misunderstood me and my organization. To put in a nutshell, Professionals Cell is an effort, first of its kind by any political party to give voice to the professionals’ community in the political corridors of the nation and thus achieve an inclusive democracy. I am indeed new on your forum and it is but obvious that in an apolitical organization like yours, there would be people who like my party and some who dislike. All are entitled to their opinions. My only humble request to you and everybody else at Praja is to perceive this as an effort by a peer organization with common objectives, only it is a political outfit, that’s all. People who me and Professionals Cell will give testimonials to fact that neither me nor my organization indulge in the obscenity of politics. We are a new breed, alien to the political community and vice versa. So, kindly don’t look at us suspiciously J I look forward to more interactions with you. 

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I am certainly aware of the how well the horoscope of the state looks like at the moment J I have shared my plan of action on CRS with your comrades..I am sure they wil fill you in. to summarize: As the President of Professionals Cell, I was on the election manifesto committee of the party and one such point that I advocated for was CRS. After due deliberations, it was incorporated into our manifesto and in the recent budget GoK has approved disbursement of Rs 200 Cr for this project to begin with. So, with this, we met the Hon’ble Railway Minister and he has assured us his support on this. Hence, we now need to go back to GoK to send a formal communication with a brief plan of the way forward to the Railway Board. Followed by this, the two govts will have a dialogue on the next steps. So, this is where it stands. We will take up this matter with Dr Parameshwara this week. Any of you interested in joining me during the meeting is/are welcome.  

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Sudarshan,

Your support and efforts for CRS is very much appreciated. CRS is a small piece of puzzle that helps  a large sections in Bangalore and its surroundings. It is urgently needed project.

What I am talking about is the larger issue of lack of inadequate railway foot print in the state. This requires much larger efforts and support.

Here are some discussions on this subject.

http://praja.in/en/blog/kbsyed61/2009/02/16/karnataka-and-railways-game-praja-initiative

http://praja.in/en/gyan/district-todistrict-train-connectivity-matrix

http://www.slideshare.net/kbsyed61/a-vision-plan-for-railways-in-karanataka-v2

A series of seminars with various stakeholders would be a way forward on this subject.

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Syed, I am a little behind schedule and I am painfully aware of it :-( I will make up for lost time this weekend. Sorry about the delay.

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Hi Prakash, I am yet to touch base with Dr Parameshwar on this. Will to it tomorrow. Mansoor Khan who is my vice-president will take up this initiative from now (from Professionals Cell i.e.). He is outta town and will be back tomororw morning. Will do my best to attend to it thsi weekend. Yuo will continue to have my complete support. Hang in there :-)

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Sudarshan,

No issues and we are very well aware of managing such endeavors while preoccupied with professional and family lives.

BTW, will appreciate if you could introduce Mr. Mansoor Khan. If I am not mistaken he is the younger son of Rahman Khan?

Regarding railways, its really a long shot. We will have to think through it and than proceed. But as I said it is important and should take advantage of Mr. Kharge as Railway Minister.

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Thats right Syed. Sure, i will be happy to introduce you guys to him. You will see for your self that Mansoor too, does not come accross a typical politician. Will send in an email for this ASAP

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