COMMENTS

GV you are right - here is a link to my blog on Mysore  that may enlighten the award givers for considering more awards':

http://www.mysorenext.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=1252&SECTION=7

and another interesting blog about Mysore's common man's crockeries that helps in conserving energy and our future needs in 2025 :

http://www.mysorenext.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=1339&SECTION=7

Outsourcing is the name of the game;  money can be spent without transparency through outsourcing, without accountability and quality assurance. Still get awards. 

Invariably majority of the foreign tourists make it a point to visit the interiors of the old city areas, take pictures of the naive scenario that is presented by the people while going through their chores with piled up garbage at street corners, dogs moving around and crows trying to steal a peace of meat from the hung mutton carcases in front of stalls, the sheep tied in front of those shops grazing, women folk giving bath to the babies on the streets from unmetered water connections, an old man sucking at his Beedi, a pawn chewing man spitting the red juice, street corner samosa seller waving his hand to ward off flies, list is long.

God bless the future silicon Tier II city and its awards.

Vasanthkumar Mysoremath

- heritage city of Mysoru

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VM avare,

Thanks for the response.

Whether private or govt run public utility programs/schemes, will be successfully in true sense only when the ultimate customer takes charge and validates that he/she has indeed received the reasonable service. Is the customer - Public doing that? I am sure answer is BIG NO.

VM avare, the lack of transparency in govt dealing is just the manifestation of the whole society as a whole. Since the ordinary public is not in the habit of asking answers, the babus and elected representatives have been conditioned to doing business discreetly.

Now that the public awareness is slowly getting into our consciousness, the onus will be on us to do the things that we just ignored for past 6 decades. Are we ready? Enlightened citizen like you should take a lead in using the transparency tools like RTI to get the information and issues that you often highlight on this forum.

Believe me the rust that has been accumulated for last 6 decades will not go overnight. It needs hard chemical processing and a lot efforts from us. For that to happen Praja is not sufficient. It will take efforts from all of us on the ground to roll up our sleeves and march for the action.

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@ Syed Bhai

You are right.  There cannot be a one man army or a few awakened citizens at Micro level who can kick the system on its butt to get up and serve its masters with proper contents, deliverables and credibles.  Macro level approach to revolutionise the society in the field of services should start at grassroots level and culminate in a mass movement.

I tried successfully, albeit at micro level - link:

http://praja.in/discuss/forums/2009/04/success-story-a-street-committee-mysore and gave a PPT demo to a full house meeting called by DC, Mysore on how it is possible to make the citizens also responsible to help the authorities serve better.   It was appreciated and may be, in course of time, with help from people like you and other prajas, a pilot project at a Constitutency level may take birth and create bench marks and serve as a best practice.

Latest info on my effort: My street is black topped - I roped in as many residents as possible and took the contractor to task when he tried to spread thin layer of tar/bitumen and with less width than was tendered and get away with it.  Our insisting him that he must adhere to the minimum thickness of 17 mm and when he did not budge, we summoned the Corporator and made him to be present till the norms were met.   Similarly, some other works have been planned and we will be at their back till we get our due services.

Similarly, people have to run from pillar to post to pay their service bills because each one of them is located in some corner of the city.  Some of us made requests through Media to  establish  Centralised payment system at one place like Bangalore One - recently CM while he was in Mysore has announced opening of such centers and also about 100 of them throughout Karnataka to help citizens to pay their bills at one place.  If this comes through, some benefits of e.governance would have reached the grass roots level.

Even if wishes were horses a sleeping army cannot ride it ! 

I will follow Swami Vivekananda's advice - keep trying again and again till you reach the goal.

Vasanth Mysoremath  

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VM avare,

Thanks for sharing the efforts of a responsibile citizenship. I am a firm believer in 'hard and sincere work always pays'. Therefore let's not club all Babus into one label - Corrupt and disgraceful.

It is in our own interest to work with public officers who are willing to take an extra step to fulfill the public services. If any babu is coming forward to engage in dialogue, share their perspective and willing to listen to humble souls like us, lets not rebuke him/her for the sins of their predecessors. Yes, the whole govt setup is thriving on the culture of corruption and pathetic public services. But in that dungeons, we do see some sparks of light could offer us the hope for small ray light.

In this example, the officer has came forward to share his side of the story. We don't have to agree to his version. But we can definitely offer our side and some tangible solutions that could ensure that story is not repeated again.

Let's reach out to those who are willing to listen to us and others. Lets build relationships with these good officers who could show us the way to be vanguard for better governance and public works. As you said, it is not necessary that in our own life time, we should see the end of the degeneration of public services, but we could definitely work to lay the foundation for responsible citizenry.

Here is a news story that offers a hope for the better future.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/35480/ias-officer-makes-assets-public.html

Shouldn't we appreciate his courage?

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The city bagged award for what? Solid waste "management" or solid waste "relocation" directly into landfills by private players?

The private players give a 10% cut to those in the administration to secure these projects....and dump stuff into pits...while there are so many fantastic NGOs that recycle the waste and "manage" it.

It is common sense for the Government to employ NGOs in this case...or experts in SWM "tell" these private players how to "manage" the waste...not just relocate it.

icon award, yay!

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