Written By silkboard - 23 August, 2007

Bangalore egovernance governance Marathahalli BDA Transparency

What is that? A board proudly displaying information about a public project at Marathahalli. [flickr-photo:id=1210640454,size=m] Work detail says: "construction of approaches to road over bridge". Does that include the bridge work as well, or only the approach roads? Where does the approach road start, and end? Completion date says : 30 September 2006. Assuming this is only about the approach road, is the work complete? Where are the pavements? I don't see any lane markings on the road as well. Who audited the work to be complete, any information on that? Is there phone number I can call and ask these questions? I am not trying to be a Tehelka reporter here. The thing is about following the law in spirit and not just letter. I am sure some regulation somewhere must be saying - "must display project information to public". So this blue board is it. Take it or leave it. Us not taking interest is one thing (the major missing piece IMHO, that is why the shoddy quality of almost all public projects) and making it harder for us to take any serious interest (who will dig up a phone number, make phone calls etc? who will find the time, most important, and money to do RTI etc?) is another.

egov

tsubba - 28 August, 2007 - 12:20

in my dream world, all projects under construction and in maintenance must display such boards with name and contact address of project head, including phone number clearly marked. And it should also display something like a projectid. using projectid i can extract everything i ever wanted to know about the project from a centralized city government website. if it is in govt database and does not threaten national security or violate trade secrets then it should be on that website. 100 bucks/download. why do i need project id? because as shastri pointed out one of the ways they obfuscate is by organizing the database and keying it arcane details so that most people are distracted. why are you asking me for ward number? i live in konankunte i am interested in this project in yeshwantpura, here is the project id, you tell me the ward number and all other relevant information. naave ella heLidre neev enri heLodu, badnekayi?

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