BBMP and Mosquitoes

Ravi_D - 16-JUL-2010

Taking a deviation to discuss a less fancy but important topic. Public Health.

According to today's DH Report, "Mosquito Control Project Director" Dr Lokesh says:

The Palike is spraying pesticides, carrying out fogging and has launched several health awareness camps to educate the public about maintaining cleanliness in and around their houses.

...has assigned three people to spray pesticides in each ward.

...has also undertaken a publicity drive to inform every citizen about the precautionary measures.

 

So the story goes. I haven't seen a single fogging machine or guys spraying pesticides at work. If DH wouldn't report it, I wouldn't have a clue there was a 'publicity drive'. But everything stated implies things that have either happened in the past or presently ongoing. 

Do I live in a different Bangalore? Have you seen any of the above in your ward?

BIAL Updates July 13 2007

tsubba - 13-JUL-2007

A summary of the developments so far. Check the links for context.

Second BIAL runway by 2013: Brunner
Text Source: Bangalore, DH News Service updated with relevant links.

Crowdsourcing: BMTC Vajra Route info database - I

admin123 - 29-JUN-2010

A few folks at Praja are trying to create some handy, cool and easy to understand maps for buses. In the initial phases their focus has been on the volvo routes.

Commuter Rail meeting with CiSTUP, went well, summary

silkboard - 15-JUL-2010

Sanjeev, IDS, PS Anantharam sir and myself went over to IISc today to meet head of CiSTUP. Short summary on how it went

• CiSTUP to add their review comments / foreword to the report
• We will jointly organize a roundtable/seminar at IISc/CiSTUP to formally release the report and discuss the subject with relevant government officers and leaders
• Will invite all transportation and investment related departments of Karnataka, railways as well, and also, local MLAs and MPs who have shown interest or tend to attend these.

We are thinking end of August for this Commuter Rail / Namma Railu seminar. Keep watching for mroe updates, or join in if you want to help organize this.

A hard copy of the report is available now, contact IDS or anyone from the Namma Railu project team if you want to see it. Wll upload the soft copy here as well as part of work for this seminar at CiSTUP.

Lets go Namma Railu :)

Open Data progress - met with dept. of Sericulture

silkboard - 15-JUL-2010

So after 2 months of pause - we have been struggling to work meeting dates with some govt depts we have spoken with - we kicked this off with a meeting with Manivanan, who now heads dept of Sericulture.

Mobilicity 2010 with CiSTUP

idontspam - 14-JUL-2010

Agenda: Discuss Mobilicity 2010 event which will have Commuter Rail and suburban connect as focus.

Venue: CiSTUP, IISC (18th cross mariamma temple circle entrance)

If interested you can show up at CiSTUP we will gather there before the meeting

Right is there; but, no information

murali772 - 14-JUL-2010

Following (in italics) are the relevant excerpts from the New Indian Express report:

The government may have enacted a law empowering citizens to demand information from public authorities, but five years later many government departments are yet to take the “first step” towards proactive disclosure. Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI act mandates that all authorities under the purview of the law must index, catalogue and computerise official records to be easily accessed by the people. So far, however, few departments have paid heed to the provision, says K A Thippeswamy, Karnataka State Information Commissioner. The progress, he said, has been “almost negligible”. “They (departments) do not even have a record room to keep  documents,” he said. “They were supposed to do it within six months of the Act coming into force. But it’s been five years and they are yet to do it.’’

Alternatives to Road-Widening

pdk - 14-JUL-2010

This post is in response to criticism that road-widening critics haven't provided alternatives to widening.

Two things.

1. Sorry for the extreme illustration, but suppose I find someone committing a murder. I'm not sure that I have to provide an alternative to him and only then try to stop him.

2. I think the people mentioned above have suggested various alternatives. The 'people' say that the problem is a unsustainable number of private vehicles on our roads. Following from that, they have likened road-widening to 'loosening the belt to cure obesity' and recognised that it is a unworkable response to traffic congestion. They have provided following alternatives to resolving traffic congestion. None of these may help by itself. But some combination of them should be tried. The list has been made from the following sources:

SBC's Convention invite

The Solution - CyBaNa

Stupidity of road widening

Lake encroachment in Mahadevapura, where to complain?

Subra - 14-JUL-2010

Want to inform regarding the lake encroachments in and around Mahadevpura and Garudachar Palya regions.Where can we complain?
 
This is serious problem seen in most areas,covering a lake/pond and constructing.This is happening everywhere including bellandur, mahadevpura, Outer ring road, Garudachar Palya.
 

GIM - Beyond Bangalore, Business World

silkboard - 12-JUL-2010

Read some coverage of GIM in BusinessWorld, (Beyond Bangalore). Must say that beyond Bangalore is a nice topic for the article, here are some intereasting bits:

... projects, if they all take off, will see Rs 4 lakh crore being invested ... Almost 65 per cent of these projects are in the iron and steel sector ... in Bellary.

The stat that Karnataka needs to change is this ...

Karnataka ... single-city economy. Bengaluru ... accounts for over 55-60 per cent of the state’s GDP, according to Aroon Raman, chairman of CII-Karnataka.

An interesting angle on iron ore controversy. Will illegal activity go away, be legalized now!?