Bangalore's Deputy Mayor: Free Parking For All

Parking needs space research

While on the one hand, the City needs a parking policy to decongest many important roads, the ruling BJP in the BBMP as well as in the State is not keen on implementing the policy for one strong reason.

“Our policy is clear. We don’t want any parking fee. Parking in the City should be free of cost. We do not want to bring back a system we had fought against some years ago,” says, Deputy Mayor, S Harish. 

He says the Palike has plans to end the parking woes, which includes parking space beneath the playgrounds. 

Sheer genius. 

This Too Happens In Bangalore

Harrowing tales of children rescued from begging

The stories of child beggars, who were rescued in the City on Thursday, are heartrending. Though in a few cases, the parents had pushed their children into begging, in a majority of cases, they had handed over their children to handlers, who in turn forced them into begging.

In many cases, the mothers used to hand over their children to the handlers and go to work. The handlers would come in the evening, leave the children at their homes, give the mothers some money and go away. Such children used to weep and quarrel with their mothers later on. 

The mothers would feed them with a high dose of cough syrup or other medicines to put them to so sleep, the officer said. In some cases, the parents of rescued children expressed utter shock on knowing that their children had been pressed into begging.

Details: Over 200 kids rescued from begging racket.  Of the rescued children, 64 were boys above 5 years, 40 were girls above 5 years and 106 were below 5 years, apparently.  Sad stories.

"BMTC profits going in reverse gear"

BMTC profits going in reverse gear.  

BMTC had posted Rs. 114 crore profit in 2005-06, Rs. 224 crore in 2006-07 and Rs. 140 crore in 2007-08. However, the profits plummeted thereafter — Rs. 55 crore in 2008-09, Rs. 65 crore in 2009-10 and Rs. 50 crore in 2010-11. (The profit of Rs. 224 cr. in 2006-07 was mainly due to the Government reimbursing subsidy of Rs. 109 cr. that was due for two years.)

OPERATIONAL LOSSES

The fall in profit margins is mainly due to operational losses despite periodic fare hikes. From 2008-09, BMTC began suffering operational losses (Rs. 22 cr.), which only kept increasing every year — Rs. 35.66 cr. in 2009-10 and Rs. 38.8 cr. in 2010-11.

There was also reduction in receipts under the head ‘other commercial revenue' advertisement revenue, rent from properties, income from sale of scrap buses, and others from 2009-10. While BMTC had received Rs. 70.4 cr., Rs. 86 cr. and Rs. 93 cr. under this head during 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 respectively, in subsequent years the revenue decreased to Rs. 77 cr. and Rs. 60 cr. during 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively.

Not only that, induction of new buses too took a beating in 2010-11 with BMTC buying just 58, as against 794 buses inducted in 2006-07, 623 buses in 2007-08, 949 buses in 2008-09 and 1,218 buses in 2009-10. Most of new buses added during 2008-10 were funded through Jawharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

With old buses fit to be scrapped continuing to ply on the roads, the utility's KMPL (mileage) came down to 3.97 a litre in 2011 as against 4.55 in 2007.

HIGH MAINTENANCE

BMTC Managing Director K.R. Srinivasa attributed increased cost of operation to non-induction of new buses and the resultant rise in the cost of maintenance and breakdowns, and decreased mileage. Also, old buses could not be scrapped to sustain increased demand for transportation. He hoped that with new buses entering the BMTC fleet from October 2011, the cost of operation would decrease. Another senior official said non-scrapping of old buses contributed to the reduction in ‘other revenue' over the last two years. 

BDA Tries Again To Grab Beggars' Colony Land

BDA at it again, tries to lay claim on beggars’ land

It seems the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) cannot wait to get its hands on the prized piece of land at Karnataka Rehabilitation Centre, commonly known as Beggars’ Colony. 

In a clear violation of the High Court orders, BDA engineers along with contractors entered the Colony situated on Magadi Road on Tuesday and tried to put up a board displaying their ownership on the property.

The question is: Why?  It is not as if the land will become the personal property of the BDA officials who are doing this.  Then why the attempts to grab it, like monkeys trying to grab bananas from temple-goers?  Promises to keep or deals to make with under-the-table payments?

More Incredible India

From the Hindu: Those who society forgot live in horrendous conditions. Horrendous is exactly right. Why does the government run the rehabilitation centre if they can't provide even a clean place?

Yeddyurappa had visited the centre in 2009 and was so moved by their plight that he wanted to shift them to a faraway location. He had given a month's time for things to be improved and promised to monitor the situation there after that visit. Wonder what he will do now? 159 acres of prime land worth Rs 1000-crore. How many have their eye on that land?

In a gruesome juxtaposition, the Hindu carries the following headline just below the above article in the paper version: Ashok: trial run of Mercedes buses in Bangalore soon.

Update: Govt to grab beggars’ land. The CM visits the colony in May 2009. In July 2009 the government tries to take over the entire 161 acres. The State Law Ministry objects since the land was originally given solely for destitute rehabilitation it can't be now diverted to other uses. And now, it turns out that around the time of the recent tragic deaths, the government was busy issuing an order to acquire 123 acres of the 161 acres for 'development'. This single-minded devotion to land-deals is sickening. Are these democratically elected representatives of the people, or blood-sucking vampires?

Metro Alone May Not Be Enough

From today's The Hindu (link) :

Traffic engineering expert M.N. Sreehari points out that Namma Metro can decongest city roads only by just 25 per cent, and that too along its corridor. Only when this corridor is networked with other modes of public transport can visible change occur on Bangalore's roads, Prof. Sreehari said.

Prof. Sreehari pointed out that Namma Metro Phase 1 and Phase 2 will not be sufficient to cater to the growing demand for public transport in Bangalore. Along with other modes, more Metro lines should criss-cross the city as early as possible to reduce the pressure on roads.

25% of traffic along its corridor.  And the corridor is pretty narrow.

So those London dreams won't come true it appears (from Times Of India 2003 - Will Metro solve city's transport woes):

Bangalore city is looking for a mass transportation system that can claim to be swift, ease pollution and congestion. The best answer to the city's various traffic woes appears to be the Metro Rail.

The London Metro, which spans the entire city, connects all important spots and even the airport. But travel is comfortable and takes just a few minutes, enhancing the quality of life. A majority live in the suburbs,where housing is inexpensive. For them, the Metro is the lifeline. Driving through London takes hours, which is also true of Paris, New York, Washington and other major cities, point out experts. 

ToI omitted the fact that the London Metro is actually called 'London Underground'.

We were sold a defective good.  And now there will be a clamour for more - mono rail, high speed rail etc... - feeder services for a stupid metro system.

Movement

The CM visits the Beggars Colony in the city and which ultimately results in headline from DH:

Plight of beggars in colony moves CM

So one expects a lot of sympathy and a firm commitment to help improve the plight of the people in the colony. Instead one realises that the CM was so moved that all he could think of was to move the colony to some other, "better", place:

The government is now contemplating to shift the Colony to a new location, a better place. The Chief Minister has now proposed to shift the Beggars’ Colony and establish a ‘Mini-Lalbagh’ along with a government hospital on a five acre land in the location.

“Being in the centre of the City and worth around Rs 1,000 crore, the land can be used for various purposes. This would be decided in the next Cabinet meeting,” he said.

Land worth Rs 1000 crores! The possibilities are endless and the imagination goes wild. Will be interesting to see how and to whom they sell it off.

Toilets In Government Schools

Are very difficult to come by. DH writes about it. And the Primary and Secondary Education Minister says it is just a matter of 2-3 years before the toilets are ready. Kids are really having it tough in Bangalore lately. 2-3 years before they can get toilets in their schools. At least that many years, and most probably many more, before they are able to walk on the street without fear of dogs (since the birth control program lets dogs back on the streets after sterilization).

Commuting In Bangalore

The government creates an Electronics City way outside the city. Software firms head out to it. People swarm to software firms. Traffic abounds on the muddy road leading to Electronics City. We (L&T more correctly) build a nice four-lane highway, with open gutters on either side and service roads too. Things improve for sometime. But eventually the gutters fill with garbage, traffic expands to fill the available road, and the service roads are foobar'd. Then we dig up the nice road laid by L&T right in the middle. We lay prefabricated structures for drainage in the aforementioned gutters and cover it all up with concrete slabs. We are going to build a nice little elevated road. But transportation professionals - you know, the ones who are actually qualified - have a maxim : "You can't build your way out of congestion". That isn't going to stop us from trying.

But really, we can't.