HOT TOPICS
SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES
|
mcadambi - 6-AUG-2008Title sound latin to you? Well, thats because it is! It means "Ignorance of laws and procedures is not an excuse". |
|
Cleaning Up 2008-2009 Lok Sabha Elections: ADR Needs Support tsubba - 4-AUG-2008
Thampan forwards this important email: |
|
Large PPPs like BIAL - ripe for corruption? admin123 - 25-JUL-2008
[A Request - This is a carryover from talk of corruption and transparency that emerged in this HAL-BIAL thread. Please don't drag the peripherals like big people wanting airport in their backyard etc into this. Add your wisdom and tips that are relevant here.]
We really want to understand this. What are the transparency and disclosure norms for PPP (Public Private Partnership) Projects? Looks like they don't come under the purview of RTI Act, at least the matter is not settled yet (We believe BIAL has filed an appeal against a court verdict that put it under RTI). Does lack of transparency set PPP projects up for corruption? |
|
Short term fix - Lease out HAL airport to BIAL? silkboard - 24-MAR-2008
On the ever so hot HAL vs BIAL debate, I saw an interesting letter to editor column of TOI (Fri Mar 21) where author Narayan G sort of suggested this - Why not lease HAL airport to BIAL itself? That could be a short term fix till BBMP/state government improves connectivity. BIAL would get revenue from HAL as well as BIAL for sometime, hopefully that will give them enough revenues to keep them from going to courts over breach of contract. We would get better facilities at HAL airport. And since BIAL would want to gain efficiency of operations by consolidating all air traffic at BIA, they will keep pushing everyone on the connectivity issue and wouldn't want to hang on to HAL for ever.
|
|
tsubba - 27-OCT-2007
http://www.kar.nic.in/lokayukta/kla_rules.htm first good thing: it is the first listing on google for lokayukta, ahead of even delhi :) now here is the downer the home page itself does not work!!! you gain entry into the website through the rules page. i went to the site looking for information regarding the suomoto powers granted for lokayukta recently but found no information. |
|
Bangalore, demolitions, media etc silkboard - 15-OCT-2007
Demolitions have been making news every other week, looks like BBMP is going to keep their razors up even after the rains are gone. Papers report today (online link unavailable) that BBMP is set to demolish parts of the club-house of Koramangala National Games village. It was reported earlier that the club-house was situated atop Raja Kaluve. I found this news report - Portions of nine buildings demolished in Puttenahalli - interesting for the last paragraph it carries. |
|
Choked Bangalore - Heart of the matter? silkboard - 23-SEP-2007
The best piece of news I have heard this month came last week. It goes "BBMP to book crook engineers". Its something we all know and suspect to be true for ever now, and the plan to break the so called 'nexus' is ambitious: "BBMP will book the engineers of the erstwhile CMCs and TMC who have sanctioned projects on storm water drains, valleys, in agricultural lands etc. ... Taking a serious note of rampant violation of zoning regulations and building bylaws, the BBMP ... will trace these officials ... and recommend action against them ... In the wake of demolitions being carried out across the city, the BBMP has stumbled on several cases where engineers have encouraged encroachments in exchange for kickbacks running into lakhs of rupees." Not that we haven't heard similar language before, but there is an interesting twist to BBMP's threat this time.
|