The great Indian passport farce

idontspam - 2-JUN-2010

 My sister visited Passport Service Kendra in Devarabeesanahalli on the 25th for the reissue of passport of her minor child. Needed to travel for a family emergency so she checked the option for tatkal.

First WTF moment. The officer checking the application scratches out her tatkal mark and ticks normal, reason given, another inspecting officer will make the determination after hearing your case and not you.  

Second WTF moment. She waits patiently for the interview where the officer says oh you marked normal on your application so you wont get tatkal. He didnt accept the argument that his own officer, who was nowhere to be seen at that time, had changed it. As a solace she is told the passport will arrive in 3 days flat.

So all arrangements to handle the family emergency and postponement of  tickets on penalty is arranged. Now comes the whammy its 2nd june and no trace of the passport. Status as of 2nd June is

"Passport will be dispatched within 3 working days excluding the date of submission."

A web query to check the status met with the following response

Real Facts about GIM

vinay_sreenivasa - 2-JUN-2010

OPPOSE AUCTION OF KARNATAKA

Demand People Friendly & Environment Friendly Development

The Chief Minister of Karnataka has announced that the 2 day Global Investors Meet in Bangalore will bring 3 lakh crores of investment as well as around 3 lakh new jobs. The promise of 3 lakh jobs to be created by the GIM and the prosperity it will bring to Karnataka does not appear to be true. Read below to find out the real costs and real facts of the GIM.

False Promise of Investment and Job Creation

Global Investors Meet - Tier2 cities to get some love?

silkboard - 29-MAY-2010

A friend called from UK recently to tell me that he spotted an ad from Karnataka government about Global Investors Meet 2010 in a prominent daily there. Thats how serious GoK has been about marketing this event taking place next week.

Need - More of Tier 2

Bengaluru has had enough of love. Those Tier-2 cities need all the attention now. No, not talking Hoskote, Bidadi or Devenahalli, talk real tier2, far up central, and further north. More initiatives like Suvarna Karnataka Development Corridor (SKDC - click here) are it.

Are trees needed in this city?

srinidhi - 27-MAY-2010

 Very unfortunate but many in this city seems to hate trees now, trees get bad press when they fall during rains and storms. We like the shade they give, especially during hot summers, but also curse them for the jams created after a storm..fallen branches etc..

BBMP has gone to the extent that they have planted signs below the trees on Chord Road: “Warning! There is a chance of trees and branches falling during the rain. So drive cautiously.”

We, without understanding these trees are out to blame them for the damage they cause. So why do branches fall off trees? There are a few reasons as below:

1. A Weak Branch Union occurs when a branch and stem (or two or more co-dominant stems) grow so closely together that bark grows between them, inside the tree. The term for bark growing inside the tree is “included bark.” As more and more bark is included inside the tree, the weak union is formed that is more likely to fail.

Investigate & publicize Mangalore air crash - petitions

indian - 24-MAY-2010

Short, narrow and faulty table-top runway. No flat terrain. Pilot/Pilots' fatigue. Quick turn-around (QTA) flights at night raises pilots' stress and fatigue levels. Compromising safety vs commercial interests. No rest between outbound and inbound journeys for the pilots and the cabin crew.

The Karnataka state government wants to establish an airport in every tier-II city across the state. Also a new concept called helitourism is also being introduced even in Madikeri, Kodagu (Western Ghats).

The presence of the Chamundi Hills has rendered the present Mysore airport potentially unsafe especially under foggy / rainy conditions for the flights that are likely to go/depart and come/arrive from Bangalore, Chennai etc.

There seems to be a veil / cloak of secrecy regarding/surrounding the exact cause of YSR's chopper / helicopter accident.

The Airbus 320s or A-320s were grounded for 07 months immediately after the 1990 air crash at the HAL Airport Bangalore by blaming the aircraft and the fly-by-wire technology for the crash. We learnt only after the Mangalore Air crash that it was a pilot error in the case of A-320 crash.

Traffic cop with a heart

shas3n - 20-JUL-2007

Several times I have been harrassed by traffic police. I have even been fined on a one-way inspite of going in the correct direction. I kept arguing and the cop kept threatening me with words like warrant, summons etc. Finally I ended up paying 100 Rs fine inspite of following all the rules. That had left a bitter taste in my mouth about traffic police.

Are Bangaloreans losing their good nature and civic sense?

IanRes - 13-MAY-2010

 This is about an incident that i witnessed in Bangalore few weeks ago.

I had been to a single screen theatre few weeks back to watch a Kannada movie. The theatre was crowded since it was a Sunday. The problem arised when the movie started. The "fans" of the movie hero, started chanting his name and shouting slogans of praise for him when the movie name was displayed. This never stopped till the end of the movie, not even for a minute! They might have watched the movie before, but how is it right to spoil the movie for the others?? They were so loud that we could not hear the dialogues properly, none of us could tell them anything lest they charge at us for being so un-fanly.. I am a fan of the star too, but shouting the slogans inside the movie hall and disturbing everyone really upset most of the other audience.

The other thing I generally notice is the habit of many people in Bangalore these days to spit on roads for no reason at all! They dont chew tobacco/pan, still they spit on roads, on pavements, from bus windows etc. There should be some strict legislation to curb such bad habits so that Bangalore stays a clean city.

Future of Capitalism

murali772 - 7-MAY-2010

''The public trust in business and its leaders has never been lower. To restore trust, it is time for business leaders to embrace their own version of the doctor’s Hippocratic Oath, which shapes a common understanding of the role of business in society and the conduct expected of business leaders,'' wrote Nitin Nohria ( who has been named to take over as the Dean of the prestigious Harvard Business School) recently after critiquing the failure of leadership in the recent economic and corporate turmoil.

''Developing, adopting, and institutionalizing such an oath is not going to be easy. But there is no better or more important moment to try—because at stake is the very legitimacy of business leaders and the future of capitalism,'' he warned. His passion for the idea led to HBS students adopting a voluntary MBA oath.

For the full report in the TOI, click here

TTMC - a case of total misuse of JNNURM funds

murali772 - 4-MAY-2010

The Jayanagar TTMC was built with a swanky futuristic look but all what’s within is huge empty spaces and leaking walls and roofs. Almost close to completing a year now, all the promises are still on paper. Apart from the busy bus service in the basement, there’s been no progress within. A quick survey of the entire building reveals nothing more than empty spaces, unfinished structures and poor quality of construction. Even the flooring and electrical wiring have not been completed. The walls and beams have already given in to the recent rain. The unfinished wiring works on the first and second floors are now seen soaked.

At a time when there is serious shortage of parking space, this TTMC has a huge park and ride provision on the terrace with a capacity of nearly 110 cars. The original idea behind it was that people could drive in, park their cars/ two-wheelers and board their bus. But, with no lifts ready yet, people are forced to walk the entire ramp up and down to park and ride. According to locals here, weekdays hardly see even 10-15 cars parked here. Even on weekends, the numbers hardly touch 20.

RTI Workshop

Rithesh - 30-APR-2010

From Loksatta Karnataka Blog: