The cable tangle - free ride?

silkboard - 1-AUG-2010

It might sound like a trivial crib to many of you, but the freedom with which Cable TV operators ride on City's infrastructure conveys something to us. It might be a ignorable case of lax enforcement, and umpteen such small small things add up to promote the feeling that anyone can do anything with city's walls, pavements, poles, roads etc etc.

Do Water & Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Acts cover housing complexes?

murali772 - 31-JUL-2010

When the KSPCB sent us a notice for the first time in May, '07, I, as the then President of the association, raised a query with them as under:

Ours is a high-rise apartment complex comprising 126 dwelling units, situated at the above address. The only waste we generate is the sewage from toilets which is discharged into the BWSSB sewage line running below the main road adjoining our complex, for which BWSSB is levying us a 'sanitory charge', as a part of the monthly water bill. As such, please advise on what basis your organisation should be levying any annual 'consent fee' on our complex.

Pollution Control Board - the government's cash cow

murali772 - 30-JUL-2010

Even as BWSSB, KPCL, KPTCL, BESCOM, etc are desperately strapped for cash, there is another government agency that's just rolling in money, viz the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). A cursory glance at the financial statements, provided on its web-site ( http://www.kspcb.gov.in/ - though not quite in a reader friendly way as one would have liked it, which but is quite the norm with most government agency web-sites), shows the revenues at Rs 190 cr for total expenses of just Rs 23.54 cr, a mere 12% of the revenues, with the direct costs being just 5%. And, it's not as if they are being very frugal in their practices or anything like that.

AIMA conference on PPPs - a report

murali772 - 22-JUL-2010

The following is my report on the "All India Management Association (AIMA) Conference on Public Private Partnerships: Issues of Governance", held at Hotel Lalit Ashok, Bangalore, on Friday, the 16th July.

Commuter Rail / Local Trains way to go after Auto fares go up

Sanjeev - 21-JUL-2010

City auto fares likely to go up from Friday

Commuters, brace yourselves to shell out more for your auto trips from Friday.He told Deccan Herald  that a report prepared by the deputy commissioner of police (east) on the quantum of hike to be revised has been submitted to the government.

Hearing pursuant to the appeal under RTI in the case of the Indiranagar Tree Felling

murali772 - 20-JUL-2010

With the BBMP tree officer remaing silent to the RTI query raised by me on the 10th April, in the matter of the apparently unauthorised tree felling on 100 ft road in Indiranagar (check this), I had sent an appeal to the Commissioner, BBMP, on the 28th June.

Benniganahalli RUB progress!

suryakamal - 9-JUL-2010

 Hi,

Would anyone know, why the work at Benniganahalli RUB (Road under bridge) widening has almost stopped?

High petrol prices - 59% levies in Bangalore, where does it all go?

Transmogrifier - 7-JUL-2010

[Promoting Transmogrifier's comment to a separate 'crowdsourcing' post - we need to know what is happening to the various taxes and cess that makes petrol so expensive for us. 59% of fuel price is levies, where is it all going today? Do share if you know.]

@ PublicAgenda, while conspiracy theorists make for good movie-making, it's time (like many here are suggesting) that we look at why we pay so much as in the way of levies (59%?) and much worse, get so little. Let's take two examples:

1. In one of the most capitalistic of societies, federal and state taxes, on average, are about 45.6c/gallon (for petrol) or 16.7% at today's price of unleaded petrol. What do you get for that? For 18.4c out of that (or 6-7%) you get 75,000 km of Interstate system on which you could cover 950km (that's the distance to Chennai... and back...and then back again) in 9.5hrs.

Consumer Court experience

murali772 - 2-JUL-2010

Given the choice, very few amongst the middle and upper classes in the country will ever want to have anything to do with the government or its agencies, plainly because they lack the basic 'technology' of handling them.

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!