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BIAL - Right to Information (RTI) Efforts
kbsyed61 - 28 July, 2008 | BIAL | Bangalore | BIAL | RTI
Dear Praja community members,
Much has been written and discussed about the Bangalore's new airport "Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL)".There has been views/counterviews ranging from one end of the spectrum to the other. There are rumors, gossips and online comparisons to judge the new airport. Things have not been very transparent and fully not in public domain to say definetely one view/opinion is correct or the other. Even before airport it started its operation on night of May 23, it has been in the midst of various controversies, appreciations and equal amount of criticism. Therefore the picture about BIAL is not very clear and certain about its ability to serve the aviation needs of Bangalore and its citizen. For an objective and honest conclusion, true facts are required. Only true facts and figures could tell us the real story of BIAL.
Praja would like to take up this issue of obtaining true facts and figures from various sources. Praja would like to put efforts in gathering as much information as possible which is authentic and straight from official sources. We would use all the available legal and official avenues to gather the facts. Right to Information Act is one such avenue we would like to make use for this project. Other avenues are also equally welcome. Let me tell you that this task is not easy and a real challenge for ordinary folks like us.
In one way, you might consider that a separate work group is being formed to take up this challenge. This thread would be dedicated for these efforts. And am very confident that discussions/question/queries on this thread would be restricted to the topic. For general dicussion we are free to use other dicussion threads.
Let me lay out a high level plan for this workgroup.
Stage 1:
- Form a group of volunteers who would work on this project
- Prepare a list of items or documents that are central to the BIAL project
- Collect the information of the sources from which the above information/documents can be obtained.
- Preparation of RTI applications and assigning them to volunteers for filing and tracking its responses.
- Parallely work on organizing one-to-one meeting with officials of BIAL, AAI/MoCA, KSIIDC/GOK and board members on BIAL to see if diplomacy can make any difference. Also for getting some official versions for respective position on BIAL and its future prospects.
Stage 2:
- Centralized tracking of filed RTI applications and its responses
- Deciphering the information from those responses.
- Assigning a group that would follow up on incomplete responses/refusals/appeals.
- Once the complete information is received, collate them into a comprehensive report.
Stage 3:
- Formulate the action plan for further action based upon this report.
This is a very high level plan and the more details can be worked out once we start working on forming the group and taking up the further action items. With one caveat, the plans would be subject to change to meet the needs and requirements of the project and circumstances.
BT and Devesh has already listed some of the items in Stage 1 items. We need to discuss these and expand the list if necessary. For this we definitely need a kick off meeting and forum where all the WG members can discuss and finalize the initial plans.
We need your support and need your help. I request all the volunteers who would like to work on this WG to respond ASAP. This call is open for both Bangalore based and remote Praja members. We definitely need quite a few Bangalore based volunteers who would co-ordinate the activities in Bangalore.
This is a serious and sensitive issue requiring carefull handling. I would like to handle this with utmost care and also maintain some level of privacy before the situation is ripe for making it public.
Please feel free to suggest ways/means to get the information from government sources. Using the services of legal professionals for this project is also under consideration of Praja Admin.
Regards,
Syed
COMMENTS
Syed,
What is the cause of distress on BIAL?
As i understand Praja, we should engage in matters which directly affect our day to day life and try and bring about a holistic change in society in general.
From your extensive writeup, i cannot decipher as to the exact cause of concern .
True; there could be issues regarding land acquistion/ BOT clauses/user fee etc.
Praja team members have done a wonderful job of highlighting connectivity issues( magic boxes, vayu vajra, lane discipline etc) and contineously keep monitoring these problems.
some posts have also got into ATC and user feel issues
Point is ;do we at praja want to get into issues other than these?
Remember , EVERY major PPP project has issues . We need to keep to issues which affect us directly. Am sure there are NGO's who are already at the job. Some one- an NGO mostly- has already apprached high court.
Hope this is taken in the right spirit.
promoting transparency + more clarification
admin123 - 30 July, 2008 - 08:54
It is suggested that this thread be maintained solely with RTI efforts to know more about BIAL.
rnavada, your question is a fair one, and should be answered. Journalism, whether investigative or not is not Praja's goal. But promoting transparency in governance is. Thats because it fits with our motto - "know, care, participate". How much do we know about Rs 2500 Cr PPP called BIAL?
The other point relevant to Praja is that this BIAL-RTI project could help us prove the power of collaboration. If 5-6 guys can join together and file multiple RTIs, and share the progress with all, thats a nice little model we will setup for ourselves. So, lets try it.
Another point that must be made here is - Praja is an open community. There are no strict directions or endorsement guidelines to initiate projects, or to solicit support here. As long as following minimal conditions are met, anyone can come and run his or her project here:
- The efforts fit in the realm of "know, care, participate",
- We produce fact based, constructive or research oriented material (no loose rants or pointless whines), and,
- The proponent of the project is willing to do on-ground work himself (can't just come and ask others to do the work - lead by example)
Now, a project may or may not find supporters or volunteers, but that depends on the specific nature of the project in question. In this example, Syed's call for help in BIAL transparency efforts may or may not fetch him help. But its okay, let it take its course.
All those who want to help, join in by sending him contact messages or PMs. If you want to help with city public transport instead, help on Transportation WG. If you have some other area in mind, start sharing your ideas, or bring in your NGO here - never know who you will find.
We want to be a platform, a big virtual hall. Our aim is to bring like minded people (who we believe are aplenty, and are to be discovered) together. Once we bring budding, veteran and retired activists together, the rest (action, via Praja WGs, or other channels, doesn't matter) should just follow.
A small suggestion
Gautamrao - 30 July, 2008 - 10:58
Sayed, I have a small suggestion to make. We can ask for INSPECTION of ALL FILES related to the BIAL project. That would contain all information.
Respond if you would like to be part of BIAL-RTI WG !
kbsyed61 - 31 July, 2008 - 15:29
Friends,
I do hope by now you must have read the post and the comments to this post. If you are interested please respond by sending a "Private Message" (PM) to me.
Syed
PPP projects under RTI afterall!
blrsri - 19 August, 2008 - 06:37
Interesting thing is that all other PPP's will be under RTI now!
BIA has been asked to hire a PIO..I guess they will have to use 10-15 PIO's!
BAL is public authority: SIC
lraman_in - 19 August, 2008 - 10:06
This comment has been moved here.
Update on BIAL-RTI's !
kbsyed61 - 24 August, 2008 - 03:27
This comment has been moved here.
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