Finally found an official list of candidates for the PMC elections. It’s strange that candidates now have just about 10 days to convince the electorate.
India
Pune City Municipal Corporation Elections 2007 – Deccan Gymkhana
Pune Municipal Corporation elections last happened 5 years back, i.e in 2002. I have hardly any memory of that election, because I didn’t quite care back then.
Things have changed a lot in 5 years. I not only intend to vote but I also plan to first study the candidates contesting the election in 2007. I have repeatedly written about how Pune city is crumbling, primarily because of incompetent administration. So I guess now’s the chance for Pune citizens to have an impact on the future of Pune.
Using Right To Information Act To Get Better FootPaths for Pune
Anybody who has been to Pune would know that the Pune Municipal Corporation is not a very competent body. The city is going down rapidly and hardly anything is being done to stop the slide.
I have been reading up on the Right to Information for quite some time and now intend to use it to get some answers on an important issue, Footpaths. I have written about this before “Pune Corporation – The Art of Converting Public Parking Spaces Into Private Property” and “Footpaths are for pedestrians and not illegal chaat stalls”
All over the city, builders are converting footpaths into parking places or approach roads for their buildings. I intend to get the following info under the Right To Information Act
- Details of new footpaths created in the last 2 years
- Details of repairs done to existing footpaths in the last 2 years
- Want to know if it is legal for footpaths to be paved by the builder instead of the PMC
- Has any action been taken against any building / builder for paving a public footpath without PMC permission?
- What action has been taken against PMC staff for failure in stopping encroachment and misuse of footpaths?
- Are footpaths designed so as to prevent any vehicle parking or their use as approach roads to buildings / parking areas?
- Which roads will get new footpaths in 2007?
- Is PMC bound to develop and maintain footpaths for all new roads in the city?
I might rephrase things a bit. But this is more or less the info I would be ask for.
I went through Right To Information Info at –
- Consumer Forum Procedure for request of Information
- Parivartan – How To Apply
- PMC Egovpmc – RTI Officers
- Model application Format for obtaining information under “RTI Act, 2005”
- Right To Information Act
- Right To Information FAQ
- Right To Information Campaign Workbook
While most of my queries have been answered. I still could not find a satisfying answer to –
- How much to pay as RTI fees and what’s the easiest way to pay them?
- None of the docs state clearly what is the amount I need to pay. They state that I will have to pay Rs 25 + photocopying/ postage on actuals. If this amount is going to change from case to case, it means I have to personally go to the PMC office and ask the bureaucrat what amount I need to pay. I would then have to pay it by standing in queues and filling more forms.
- This I think is a big flaw as it eliminates the option of me getting things done by post and without having to suffer the irritations that inevitably follow a visit to a govt. office.
- There’s no provision for electronic money transfer. It might seems elitist to talk of electronic transfers in a poor country, but the act should provide for it.
Ideally I should be able to make an online payment for a flat fee of say Rs 100. Then fill up a form on a central RTI site. The site should be well aware of the Public Information officer (PIO) to contact. The PIO should get anemail and I should get a confirmation.
Looking at the government’s e-awareness record, e-Right to Information is unlikely to happen in the near future, so I guess I should start planning my visit to the PMC office.
Any suggestions on how I could simplify the process or make better use of my application, are most welcome.
Should I keep rowing or should I abandon ship and swim for that glittering island?
A few days back, a friend told me about his plans to head for a foreign country because he has had enough of India. He isn’t one of the ‘crazy about US’ kinds who think that all things American are cool or who only talks about English music and Hollywood. He is as connected to India as most of us. Yet he is convinced that he has to move out of India.
That discussion has got me thinking about the topic of young Indians migrating from India. This article is my attempt to put down the various factors that are at work in this matter.
I will discuss the history of Indian migrations and then look at why people migrate and why they don’t. If you are expecting a yes or no answer about migrating, I unfortunately can’t provide that.
Although I am taking an Indian perspective, I think most points would be relevant to all developing nations.
Also please note that I am trying to take an objective view on the subject and not a patriotic or emotional one.
Read more
The “Java Is Open” Contest – Win Great Books & Conference Pass
Java Is Now Open Source. To mark the occasion, IndicThreads.com is running a contest on Java technology, where you just answer four questions and can win –
1) A copy of “Beginning EJB 3 Application Development: From Novice to Professional” by Raghu R. Kodali, Jonathan R. Wetherbee and Peter Zadrozny
2) A copy of “Java Persistence with Hibernate” by Christian Bauer and Gavin King
3) A full conference pass to the IndicThreads.com Conference On Java Technology
5 second prizes – Get a 25% discount on the regular conference registration pass!
Authors of the above books, namely Gavin King and Raghu Kodali will be speaking at the IndicThreads.com conference. Apart from Raghu and Gavin, there are a number of other book authors whom you could meet at the event.
Check out the speaker list at http://conference.indicthreads.com .
 |
 |
 |
|
Java Persistence With Hibernate (Manning)
|
Beginning EJB3 (Apress)
|
Full Conference Pass
|
Enter The Contest
India’s first independent conference on Java technology – Pune – 1st & 2nd December 2006
Ever wondered why apart from a handful of open-source events, no learning-oriented technology conferences happen in India?
We are mostly stuck with conferences that are promotional events or marketing shows with free 5-star lunch, goodies and t-shirts in return for spending hours listening to why company X’s product Y is the best and how company X’s products are changing the world.
The ruin of sports institutions in India
Some time back I wrote “PYC Sports Gymkhana Pune stops serving alcohol – Is the focus back on sports?”. The answer is no.
Demand a passbook for your bank savings account
In one of the best banking news in recent times, RBI has made it compulsory for banks to issue passook to savings account holders.
Is resignation to circumstances inherent to Indian culture?
One of the most striking things about Indian culture is that we rarely resist. For hundreds of years we have been ruled by the Mughals and the British, but apart from the independence struggle early in the last century and in 1857, there’s not much record of resistance from the masses. A few rulers did resist foreign rule but those weren’t people’s movements.
Pune Power Cuts
My letter published in the newspaper Sakal Herald dated 29th Sep 2006.
——
“MSEB or whatever it is known as these days issues these expensive ads every week announcing that it will switch off power for several hours every Thursday for so called “maintenance activities”. Puneites also
seem to have accepted these Thursday cuts as a fact of life. No resistance either from the people or the people’s representatives.
Read more
Cook Indian Dishes and Recipes
Hey, check out this wonderful new site dedicated to cooking Indian dishes and delicacies. The site has some true Indian and particularly Maharashtrian dishes like Ukadiche Modak, Kheer, Puran Poli, Laddoos… If your mouth’s not watering by this time, you surely haven’t eaten these dishes.
I have only recently discovered cooking and recently tried creating optimized and simple cakes and Gulab Jamuns. I look forward to trying some of these recipes or considering my previleged position, I might just get the dish from the site creators. 🙂
Iqara Broadband becomes You Telecom – Internet quality stays just as bad
Iqara Boradband recently changed its name to You Telecom. Unfortunately the name’s the only thing that has improved with Iqara.
I have been using Iqara / You Telecom for a couple of years and here are some quick observations:
PYC Sports Gymkhana Pune stops serving alcohol – Is the focus back on sports?
A few days back I heard that the PYC Gymkhana located in the Deccan Gymkhana area in Pune has stopped serving alcohol. This came as a pleasant surprise and compeltely against recent trends in Indian cities.
Pune Youth Club (PYC) Hindu Gymkhana was formed in 1934 and for over 70 years has been a sports organization. PYC was once about cricket, badminton, table tennis and tennis.
Democratic Occupiers – History and Implications
Paud Road – Senapati Bapat Link Road from the Pune Hills
One of the top topics for discussion in Pune today, is the new hill road that has been approved. The road will connect Paud Road and Senapati Bapat Road and is expected to ease traffic congestion in Pune city.
Footpaths are for pedestrians and not illegal chaat stalls
Encroachments on footpaths and by the roadside are so common that most of us barely notice them. We have to step around these vendors, be very inconvinienced by them and their customers and yet we choose to ignore them. We do not even hesitate while buying things from these very vendors that cause us so much trouble everyday. Why?
Thinking beyond IIT and IIM
A clarification before I get into the subject: I am not against IITs and IIMs. They are wonderful institutions and I respect the handful who get into these institutions. The IITs and IIMs have not failed the nation. It’s the nation that has failed the core idea behind these institutions.
Thank you Pune Municipal Corporation for the nice new footpaths
It feels good to finally be writing something positive about the Pune Municipal Corporation. Have you noticed the number of new footpaths being created and the resurfacing of some old ones?
The new footpaths opposite Deccan Gymkhana and BalBharti on Senapati Bapat Road, the resurfacing of the Bhanadarkar Road stretch are very heartening and reassuring changes.
Footpaths I think are the key to any city being well organized. The reason why Kothrud seems such a mess is the lack / absence of footpaths and trees by the road side.
I hope this is just the beginning of a PMC drive to create new footpaths and improve existing ones. Please also plant trees by the road and ensure that these nice new footpaths don’t end up being hawker zones.
In India, suffering is just a part of life!
If there’s one thing that has an instant and direct relation to development, that’s power supply. The new economy is completely driven by electricity. Switch off the power supply and business and growth comes to a stand still. Considering this, you would expect decision makers to consider electrictiy supply as an item of critical importance.
That might be true in some countries but definitely not in India. The power supply situation just keeps going from bad to worse. You have power cuts for several hours every day in most cities across India. The situation is especially bad in Maharashtra.
India supposedly has a very talented bunch of software engineers. But how can they possibly compete on a global stage if there’s no power to run computers.
Power is just one example, but where’s the water, where are the clean shelters?
What is especially distressing is that Indians just seem to accept atrocities as a part of life. So protests die out quickly and everyone gets used to the suffering. Politicians keep trying to win elections based on religion and caste based issues.
Such instances make it obvious why a handful of foreigners could rule India for over a hundred years. Protesting and demanding rights, is just not part of the Indian psyche. We suffer at the hands of a foreign ruler and then our own leaders and yet we accept it as just a part of life.
Having said all this, even I have to take responsibility as apart from articles and blogs on things I feel are wrong, I haven’t really done much. Need to do more, lot more …..