Lokayukta has done it again; surfacing the bemani properties of corrupt sr.govt officials… this still seems to be the tip of the iceberg …

Lok Ayukta sleuths swooped down on the Bangalore residence of Davangere assistant commissioner (commercial taxes) Amanulla Sharief on Friday morning, They unearthed documents for property worth Rs 1.35 crore and cash from his house, whereas his entire 30 years’ earnings would have come to just Rs 30 lakh.
The Lok Ayukta also raided residences of nine officials, including an IAS officer, a deputy superintendent of police, commercial tax department officers. The raid yielded properties worth Rs 20 crore, disproportionate to their known sources of income. Read more..

What’s happening is not something new; the corruption has deeper roots in almost everything in our country, the lac of drive from political and administrative fronts to uproot the same. The need of hour perhaps is to protect the public wealth and interest rather than compromising our democratic principles and maintain the ‘chalta hai attitude’. The legal framework though has noted this down the ‘suo motto’ actions from political arena must be deep asleep over these cases for sure…

- “HAaL ya B(IA)haaL!!”

May 22nd 2008, yes that’s the date! Just a day before HAL is pushed to cease domestic travel. Despite formal position of the civil aviation ministry is that metros require two airports likes of Mumbai and Delhi….

In an interlocutory petition filed by social worker B Krishna Bhat, Bangalore City Connectivity Foundation (BCCF) and advocate G R Mohan, SC sought the details regarding the meeting’s held involving the Chief Secretary and other senior officials on April 19 and May 12, it is learnt that in these meeting they found it impossible to retain the HAL airport.

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Here’s a message written by Nitin Shenoy, one of my fellow-volunteers on “Hasiru Usiru”:

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Please cast your vote tomorrow.

To look for your name in the voter list:

click here

Put your name (check the spelling- they are way off mark) and the pin code and it works.

In case the link doesnt work.. go to this link and search name under BBMP area.

To find your polling booth:

click here

“Instead of searching for the polling booths on the day of exercising their franchise in a hurry, he said that the voters could contact the helpline. This facility is available to all voters through out the State on a common number 155212.

For Bangalore Urban and Bangalore Rural Districts, in order to make a clear distinction, owing to the same STD code, a suffix (1) for Bangalore Urban and (2) for Bangalore Rural is attached to 155212, i.e.1552121 for Bangalore Urban and 1552122 for Bangalore Rural district.”

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It *is* we who can make a difference to the governance of this city, this State, and ultimately, our country…so do vote!

With elections coming up, things are bound to get a little exciting on our political stage.

So we might not have proper roads, or good infrastructure and we can talk all day about the lack of our public transport system. But one thing is for sure - these folks are so rich they can possibly get a whole highway created just on their wealth!

I was reading an news article about how much these folks are worth and here are some really astonishing figures. These have been declared assets in their affidavits filed for the first phase of the poll.

Prasad Reddy: Declared Rs 220 crores. With assets in real estate, and more than 200 crores invested in land, commercial property and apartments. He owns 15 vehicles at a combined worth of Rs 3 crores!

Kuppendra Reddy: In terms of finance is worth more than Rs 180 crores. Owns commercial buildings worth nearly 55 crores and a residential building worth Rs 5 crores. And added to this are bank deposits, bonds, debentures, shares…

Krishnappa who is a contractor and an agriculturalist. Cash of over 27 lacs and deposits over 14 crores and bonds and debentures over over 19 lacs. Also, around 21 vehicles at 1.79 crores and jewellery of more than 2 crores. There’s more!

It took me a few minutes to let all these crores sink in. I for one, can’t even imagine how anyone can amass wealth of this size and quantity in one lifetime, especially with their respective backgrounds. Amazing!

At this house…..

the election campaign for the Janata Dal is beginning, with this vehicle. Here’s the front view:

The back view:

and the side view:

the name says, “jAthyAtheetha janatha dal” (secular janata dal; literally translated, “beyond caste”).

Then comes the banner that asks if you are on the electoral rolls, and if not, tells you what to do:

The elections, they are a-coming, and we’re getting ready, too……

- Elections are coming!! 

This synergy of political alliances seen in this shop where all political symbols / flags are seen standing together. This shop in a market area must be running a successful business of democracy!!

Underpass at Cauvery junction is finally ready, I see the BBMP folks getting out of the stress for planning, execution and most importantly Public relations abode. 3 days to 33 days, a symbolic situation which has raised many questions on capabilities, competence and completion of govt initiatives.

No, I don’t want to start over blame game as the topic is chewed off so much already, but the question is what have we as a system have learnt from this episode(pardon my unified expectations). Few questions at large…

Will we ever plan our public utilities and infrastructure better?

Will the Govt. Machinery ever use professional approach, structured planning methods and enhance communication by and between departments?

Will citizens continue to bear the escalated costs and fiscal burdens for the inefficiencies and ill-accountability within govt departments and scholar bureaucrats finally?

Will people vote for ‘citizen satisfaction’ as a parameter in elections for political parties?

While we are talking about all the things that are wonderful about this absolutely mindblowing city, I think it is time to take a pause and look at one of the headlines last week that managed to shake me of my comfort zone.
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The vacation planning to Mumbai is overdue for my family, the reason my reservations to fly from BIAL. Looking at the time and cost estimate I am still confused whether to fly or catch the train. Here are few points to ponder..

Time Factor > The access to the HAL airport currently takes 15 minutes for me from Indira Nagar, this time will be history once the new BIAL opens post march and closes down all passenger flights out of HAL (as per the contract I understand) the new airport is almost 35-40 kms from my house that will eat up atleast two hours for travel. Essentially this means I can not take early morning flights that will not be of any advantage anymore. The air travel is usually taken to ’save’ time of travel and the BIAL is taking ‘passengers for a ride’ for sure on the ‘time’ factor.

Cost factor > for the present HAL airport it takes me just 50 rupees by auto or Rs.125 by a call taxi. To use the new airport I will have to shell out atleast Rs 600 for a call taxi minimum and completely forget using auto. Knowing the ‘nature’ of private taxi operators to take passenger for granted this cost would easily end up around Rs.800-1000. Reaching airport thus becomes costlier than the airline ticket (that I am used to pay Rs.500/600 if booking is done two months in advance )which I certainly will not ‘agree’ to pay just because someone singed a contract with BIAL without taking general public views / reactions into consideration. It is also learnt that BIAL has sent a proposal to the Union civil aviation ministry seeking to levy use a development fee of Rs 675 on outgoing domestic travelers, which makes me wonder why??

Essentially this ‘arrangement’ of a large airport would have a major impact on domestic travel for both family and business travelers. The business travel which ‘prefers’ the same-day-return travel to save on accommodation cost, this now looks a distant possibility! On the other hand this BIAL can get going good for international travel as it is more pre-planned and these time and cost factors may not have major bearing there…

I am yet to get the grip on this ‘new airport’ arrangement for domestic travel due to these aforesaid practical reasons. I feel BIAL has just lost one customer for sure before it even starts its operation, what say??

Over the last couple of days this is probably the news that most Bangaloreans have been eagerly tracking. The return of SM Krishna to active politics. When SM Krishna ceased to be the Chief Minister of Karnataka after his party failed to garner the required majority, a lot of people thought that Bangalore would lose as a result of he not continuing as the Chief Minister. A lot of them today would say it indeed has been like that.

So should & will SM Krishna return as the CM?
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