Accountability of our emergency helplines

deepakar - 2-JUL-2010

Here's my experience with the Police emergency phone number, 100, that makes me pray that nobody ever has any emergency.

Last Saturday, I was returning by train from Thanjavur. While the train was waiting for a clearance to enter the railway station, I heard some commotion outside. Two guys, at least one of them very drunk, were fighting. The inebriated one was lying on the tracks (and hardly moving) and the other man was beating him up. This was at 4 AM and it was still pretty dark. Sensing danger to their lives if a train happened to approach on that track the passengers from my coach urged them to move away from the rails. Since they didn't pay heed, I decided to call the police helpline 100.

My first reaction when the lady answered the phone was surprise at the complete lack of urgency in her tone and voice. I explained the situation to her, and she asked me to call the railway police. There was no answer from that number so I dialed 100 again and got to speak to the same lady. This time she asked me to call the general railway helpline 197!

Lokayukta, Praje and fear

silkboard - 30-JUN-2010

I have heard him in a couple of public meetings, and have met him in a small group once. Note taken from those interactions with Lokayukta Santosh Hegde was that he has two battles to fight. One of them we know well enough, newspapers love covering how the government doesn't cooperate in prosecution or investigations.

The other battle for him - or any such toothless or draconian institution government could create - is to get real support from us, as in the citizens, people, praja. SMS campaigns, petitions etc (one petition from Loksatta party is still live on this website) is one thing, making full use of Lokayukta's office is another.

Unpleasant experience at RTO Koramangla

shekhar_mittal - 28-JUN-2010

I sent out the following email to Ashwin Mahesh narrating my experience at the RTO recently. I am pissed about the whole experience. At moments like these it feels awesome to realise that I am a member of Praja:)

Road Widening in Bangalore - City convention on 4th July

manojkumar.gb - 28-JUN-2010

Hi All,

"Save Bangalore committe" has taken up for a city convention about road widening in Bangalore.

Thought of sharing the information with all of you. Please go through the attachment for the details.

Thanks,

Manoj

Meeting with Adviser to the CM on road-widening issues

murali772 - 25-JUN-2010

The meeting was convened by Dr A Ravindra, advisor to the CM on urban issues, at the instance of the Bangalore Environment Trust (BET), on the matter of 'road-widening', on 23rd June, at the Vikas Soudha. Along with Dr Ravindra was his deputy Dr Ashwin Mahesh. Though the Commissioner had apparently been requested by Dr Ravindra to be present, along with some of his top officials, only a Superintending Engineer turned up, that too some half way through the meeting.

There were about 20 invitees, largely from Civil Society groups, including Capt Prabhala, Mr Govardhan, Mr Nityananda, Mr Devare from BET, Ms Kathyayini Chamaraj from Civic, Dr Harini Nagendra, a Doctor who is spear-heading the 'Sankey road widening opposition' movement, apart from yours truly representing Praja and Koramangala Initiative.

It started with Mr Nityananda of BET making a presentation, making out a case for widening, where need be, in a more tree-friendly way, citing examples of some specific roads.

Forced into jay-walking

murali772 - 23-JUN-2010

Today, I had this strange experience. I had been invited to this meeting convened by Mr A Ravindra, advisor to the CM on urban issues, at the instance of the Bangalore Environment Trust, on the matter of 'road-widening', at 3.30 PM at the Vikas Soudha (On what transpired at the meeting, I will post separately - nothing too earth-shaking, though).

I reached well ahead of time, parked my car in the paid parking lot in the Cubbon park, near the library, and walked upto the Vikas Soudha main-gate. But, to reach the main gate, I had to cross the busy Vidhan Veedhi. There was a convenient pedestrian crossing, with signal lights, though the zebra markings had mostly got obliterated. The signal was showing red as I reached it, and the law-abiding citizen that I like to be seen to be, I waited for it to turn green, even as many people were crossing all over, darting through the speeding traffic. After some patient waiting, it suddenly occurred to me that a whole new cycle had started, even as the pedestrian signal had remained red right through.

Our Worshipfull Corporaters

psaram42 - 18-JUN-2010

Shri. S.K.Nataraj, Worshipful Mayor , No. 144, 12th Cross,3rd Main, Sarakki Grama, Bangalore-560078 Mobile : 9845013157

BMTC invites tender for Hebbal TTMC under PPP!

kbsyed61 - 9-JUN-2010

Happened to notice a tender notification on BMTC website for the construction of TTMC at Hebbal.

The Tender document states the site overview to be "..The project site is located in the northern part of the city at Hebbal, measuring about 7.95 acres. The site is situated at the intersection of the National Highway 7 (Bellary Road) and the Outer Ring Road. The intersection along with the Hebbal flyover is an important landmark in the city and is strategically located in terms of connectivity to the new airport at Devanahalli and to different parts of the city.

As per the Bangalore Master Plan 2015, the  site land use is classified as Traffic & Transport  (T&T) category. Currently out of 7.95 acres, about 4.27 acres of the bus depot is operated by BMTC. Depot comprises of maintenance workshop, washing area, fuelling station, stores and administration building. At present, the depot is a base for about 210 buses which includes about 90 Volvo buses..."

Global warming - building cracks?

hemaraj - 6-JUN-2010

I had been to Tirupathi 20 -25 days back, before the fall of sri kalahasthi kopuram.

on my way , I visited sri kalahasthi templeand saw the  crack in the gopuram and was thinking about all through my journey.

on my way back I visited my cousin living in Chittoor, they live in an 60 -70 year old house, every time i visited i felt so happy as the building was in good condition even after all these years.

but this time i noticed big cracks in the ceiling, then I recollected the cracks in sri kalalhasthi.

When I visted ,at that point of time the weather was at 44 degrees or more so.

then my thought was that do most building crack fast as the temperature keeps on increasing.

what is the fate of humanbeings, without shelter.

I was deeply concerned about the future generation .

today iread the cracking in the srirangapatna temples gopuram.

Has the journey for the extinct of human beings started.

god made good things we destroyed.we wanted more and more comforts and invented and polluted .

we should follow the principle of roti kapada and then house and then luxury.

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.