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COMMENTS

How is a bunch of people, who may not even know the issue in detail, and may not even be residents of Bangalore, "signing" on an internet website action?

There are a few petitions on this matter now. which ones do a I sign, and which one do a I leave? Perhaps sign all of them?

You have listed following people as targets: Hon'ble Supreme Court, PM, MoUD, MoEF, Guv, CM, CS, BDA, BBMP, BMRC

Will someone print the petition (physical form) and hand over personally to all of above recipients? Or do you expect all of them to see 5-6 petitions sites and take action by themselves?

And why so many targets? why should the PM be involved in all issues all around the country? why BDA? they don't own anything around the MEtro work happening in Lalbagh?

Sorry Syed Tanveer. Not trying to give you a hard time. Just thinking how to make these online tools (petitions, this website itself) more meaningful. Without the last-mile and local "connect", I am afraid we all may be just "noise over Internet". All it needs is that last-mile connect - summarize the "noise", pass on to someone who can do something about it, and then track it to completion.

We are nowhere there yet, long ways to go. but we will try.

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 Hi Silkboard, 

Not sure where Syed came up with so many targets, and not sure what he means by being the "sponsor" of this petition. This petition has been drafted by Hasiru Usiru - a collective of individuals and NGOs, so there is no individual sponsor. Further, it is directed towards *only* the Chief Minister of Karnataka and has a very specific objective. Rest assured, it will be printed, and along with physical signatures (of which we have collected many!) and internet based endorsements, it will be submitted to him shortly. 

Meanwhile, I would encourage everyone on this forum to read the original petition available here http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savelalbaghfrommetro/signatures.html
to make themselves aware of some of the issues surounding the expansion of the Metro in the Southern Reach. There is more information at the Hasiru Usiru website (http://www.hasiruusiru.org). If this campaign succeeds, we may pave the way for a deeper democratic process in developing Bangalore's infrastructure.. 

At Hasiru Usiru we are determined to take this campaign forward, and the petition is only one part of it. Understandably readers get the feeling of helplessness each time one signs a petition like this wondering "will it do any good". In this case, I would like to reassure readers, while results cannot be guaranteed, many people are working very hard to make sure the effort you spend reading and signing this petition does not go in vain. However, given the success of past campaigns (such as the recent reversal of lake privatization), we are optimistic..

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Kanishka,

Thanks for posting a reply. And no need to stress so much on "success" or "guaranteeing results". Activism is about following up on your causes and beleifs - success is not as important as getting down to doing things. As das and I were talking in a meeting last week, "run a campaign to cut trees, or one to save them, but please, have a trip in life, don't sit around watching things happen that you do not like."

My note to Syed Tanveer was to explain and understand the value of online petitions - how to design and make best use of them? We want to build a petition feature here that groups like yours (Hasiru Usiru) can use. But we certainly don't want to build a system where everyone, whether its you, me or Tanveer, can go create petitions without demonstrating serious understanding of issues and corresponding on-ground connect with the target or recipient of the petition.

About HU's campaign, more than the current flare up (about trees), I am watching the dabates (on HU email list) on "citizen involvement", "deeper democratic process" etc with interest.

Anyway, do share your updates here if you like, though we know you guys have eventually decided to build and manage your own website.

-Pranav

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I haven't kept track of the bangalore metro construction. I have a question which probably has been answered before - why are they not going underground..below Lalbagh?  The immediate answer I guess would be cost..but I feel the long term cost of destruction of trees in Lalbagh would be far greater and we cannot really put a price(or rather cost) on those trees. Those trees are priceless. 

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 Its not just about cutting the trees..its about encroaching into Lalbaugh that more concerning!

Anyways looks like the fight is about a loosing battle!

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