Hi Guys!

There is an opportunity for our forum members to air their experience to the press.

Our forumers, who have already contributed to the upgradation of infrastructure in any way can come out with their experience with proof. They will be interviewed and the selected quotes will be published.

The aim is to prove to the world at large that

- Common men are interested in the welfare of the city / town they are living in / they belong to.

- Meaningful proposals were given by the forumers to the Govt / NGOs.

- The Govt / Depts were also participating in the exercise.

The result of this exercise may lead to the formation of a core group of interested people being in the consultative panel for the city's improvement.

Our ideas and voices will be heard by the right and decision making people and we may see some positive reactions.

Kindly note that this opportunity should not be used for any personal gains, which may derail the process.

I woule request Planemad to furnish his experience with respect to his Map project, his experience with corporation officials and also his experience with MTC (earlier PTC) officials. He can also furnish his unconference experience wrt any infra related development.

I remember Sridhar's map was used by Metro Rail for their project report. I would request Sridhar to explain his experience with the officials. (I hope that Metro guys did not use his map without permission !?!)

I can also relate my experience with OMR and othe infra projects.

I welcome other forumers who have got similar experience working with Govt officials or NGOs for the infra development.

You must have seen recently that Chennai Mayor is also thinking along similar lines and I hope that our ideas and suggestions will be heard / read by him and other officials.

Please come out with your experience as early as possible.

^^ Kannan, Congrats on taking the most meaningful step in the forum. I think this will act like a bridge between ideas/criticisms and action. I wholeheartedly and proactively will work towards strengthening the core group you mentioned.

:bow:

:applause:
:banana:
:nocrook:

HATS OFF SIR!!! ----> Mr.Kannan

If this happens, I see this as a revolution of sorts!!! Great intention and fantastic intitiative!!

I always felt that the members in this forum had so many fasinating ideas. But never know the way to convey it to the people in power!! If this happens, will certainly fill the gap between those rich ideas and the way things are getting actually implemented.

Sir, cetainly I should call you as a torchbearer of all the forum members of SCC-Chennai. I am sure that lot of enthusiatic people will march with you.

ALL THE BEST SIR and MY GOOD WISHES!!

Good intiative Mr. Kannan... Congrates and all the best...

kannan, its a wonder come true, if our forumers suggestions are being heard in the press.
Hope you have done the talks with the press.
My hearty wishes for y(our) efforts to take shape.
I request forumers who visit this thread to wish kannan for his initiatives.
:cheers:

Congrats to Mr. Kannan for taking this to next level. I hope it sets an example

Congrats Mr.Kannan!! :cheers::cheers:

Awesome forumers!! SSCI rocks!! :banana::banana::banana:

I will try to contribute my little part in eveyone's efforts!! :)

kannan sir,

Thanks for this initiative. I have been on lurk mode on the forum for some time now, participating relatively infrequently. I didn't know that my map was used by the metro rail people but have no problems if they did. I and Ashish Vashisht (who started the first metro-related yahoogroup in India) started that map project because none existed at that time for any of the Indian cities. Indeed, awareness of metro projects in general was quite low. Now, things are quite different. planemad has created a fabulous set of maps. Wikipedia pages are quite detailed and up to date. And the projects themselves have moved on quite a bit. For instance, when I created the first map of Chennai's public transport network, the current metro system had not even been conceptualized, and the MRTS Phase 3/4 were still in the master plan.

In any case, I would be more than happy to contribute in whatever small way I can.

This is Unbelievable effort .... you are one of the real guy who really work before speak.

As this forum going to be watched by media, i request our frenz (including me) to be responsible and post comments and ideas based on facts and stats not just personal assumption. :okay:

^^

That is one great news and a great initiative!!!! Hope this step will help towards the betterment of the infrastructure in our country.

One doubt though..... is this being taken up only in Chennai/TN or throughout India?????

:rock: great buddy

Hi Guys!

Thanks.

I am little embarassed that all the messages so far have been only congratulatory and not the experience, details of the contribution and reaction from the authorities.

The press will quote our forum members and their experiences. I am yet to fix a date for the same.

Planemad contribution has already been acknowledged in the press but still his works will be the proof for common man's contributions. I request Planemad to make a presentation on his experience with authorities.

Probably Sridhar's metro map, which he made long before Chennai Metro Rail was conceived, was used in their presentations.

Similarly the google maps with suggestions for flyovers, underpasses and FOBs along OMR posted by me were used during Planning Discussions by authorities.

I do not know much about other forumers who contributed their bits from other cities. Probably, I have to post the news in other cities forums also.

But the press in Chennai will be more interested reg Chennai and Tamilnadu, I suppose.

Please send your experiences asap.

Thanks

kannan sir,

Thanks for this initiative. I have been on lurk mode on the forum for some time now, participating relatively infrequently. I didn't know that my map was used by the metro rail people but have no problems if they did. I and Ashish Vashisht (who started the first metro-related yahoogroup in India) started that map project because none existed at that time for any of the Indian cities. Indeed, awareness of metro projects in general was quite low. Now, things are quite different. planemad has created a fabulous set of maps. Wikipedia pages are quite detailed and up to date. And the projects themselves have moved on quite a bit. For instance, when I created the first map of Chennai's public transport network, the current metro system had not even been conceptualized, and the MRTS Phase 3/4 were still in the master plan.

In any case, I would be more than happy to contribute in whatever small way I can.

Welcome back Sridhar.

Are you still active in other forums - Bharat Rakshak etc? You guys were pioneers a few years back.

Probably, I should not be very partial to SSC. If you know anybody, who has made some valuable contributions through other platforms also, you may ask them to contact me.

My email id is kannan@infratech.co.in

Kannan, thanks for the initiative. Being a bit confused, I need a guideline on what you are looking for :-

Are you looking for our experiences/grievances/suggestions related to the infra development in the public infrastructure arena ?

Or also the experiences related to personal property development where we interfaced with public/govt officials and have some process recommendations?

Ram,

I think that we should project only positive and success stories here and should not highlight the negative failures (I mean for this press report).

Newspapers are full of the negatives / failures and we need not add anything, since it will not be noticed.

The aim is to make the world know about the common man contribution to the infra development and the fruitful efforts.

I have been advocating (in this forum and others) that unless we work in tandem with officials, we can not solve our city's problems. If we complain, we will not be listened to. We have to give solutions and help them implement the same.

This news report will speak about how a common man's idea was used for the city's development.

Once we achieve the status of a responsible forum, then even our negative criticisms may be listened with care. But not at this stage.

I hope that I have made my thought clear.

Ram,

I think that we should project only positive and success stories here and should not highlight the negative failures (I mean for this press report).

Newspapers are full of the negatives / failures and we need not add anything, since it will not be noticed.

The aim is to make the world know about the common man contribution to the infra development and the fruitful efforts.

I have been advocating (in this forum and others) that unless we work in tandem with officials, we can not solve our city's problems. If we complain, we will not be listened to. We have to give solutions and help them implement the same.

This news report will speak about how a common man's idea was used for the city's development.

Once we achieve the status of a responsible forum, then even our negative criticisms may be listened with care. But not at this stage.

I hope that I have made my thought clear.
Great thoughts

Congrats guys. :cheers2:

thanks kannan for pushing this. each time i sit down to write i keep getting pulled for some work :( its been my biggest regret that i havent been able to share the stories behind my work that i have done all these years with others.

although i have been a little stretched for time lately i'll try to help out. you want me to post my experiences here?

This is very good initiative, at the same time, after it goes into media, i have a word of caution ,many people would join and bring in some unwanted things,criticise for even a small thing,i don't want it to become like a NDTV or IBN.

congrats guys ... Can we submit infra. Suggestions ? Or ideas?

Congrats to all ...

i just have one request for all of us here, we come up with so many ideas, suggestions, criticisms etc, but when have we actually stepped out and tried to change something in the real world. please do try, in whatever small way you can and it will make a difference.

during the four years i was in chennai studying engineering, i used to be a regular visitor to the ripon building, corpration ward offices and mtc offices, trying to extract whatever i could for the busroutes.in (http://busroutes.in) and openstreetmap.org (http://osm.org) projects. my goal was to make important information that sits locked up in these places and make it more accessible to the public. although i want claim to have been entirely successful in what i hoped to achieve, but i do believe i have made a significant impact, going by the amount of requests i get to help various agencies and organizations that are working on social and development projects in chennai.

Unfortunately i am no longer in chennai and cannot continue the work that i used to. I do hope that future forumers from here would continue the tradition of taking the vast amount of knowledge and exposure that we get from ssc and applying it in the real world. its quite easy to sit in your chair at home and shoot online posts criticizing the miserable policies of the government, but unless you step out and see how the system actually functions you will never fully appreciate the scale of the complexities that our administrators face, nor will you be taken seriously by them.

Kannan sir has time and again tried to emphasize this point, and rightly so. this forum has a great potential as a platform where a lot of like minded citizens who are concerned about the development of the country can come together and share valuable knowledge.

Great initiative Kannan.:cheers:
Btw, I think this thread should be moved to Chaibar

Atlast! the true reason for the creation of skycraperCity has now BEEN realised. I have always felt that true enthusiasts,people who knows the needs of the city is represented in this forum. Have always wondered how come the infrastructure officials and people from the govt have not asked the forum what is needed.May be they are not aware of this wonderful forum. I guess this is the break guys!!!!! MAKE USE OF IT MEANINGFULLY.

Good work Kannan infratech


Hi Guys!

There is an opportunity for our forum members to air their experience to the press.

Our forumers, who have already contributed to the upgradation of infrastructure in any way can come out with their experience with proof. They will be interviewed and the selected quotes will be published.

The aim is to prove to the world at large that

- Common men are interested in the welfare of the city / town they are living in / they belong to.

- Meaningful proposals were given by the forumers to the Govt / NGOs.

- The Govt / Depts were also participating in the exercise.

The result of this exercise may lead to the formation of a core group of interested people being in the consultative panel for the city's improvement.

Our ideas and voices will be heard by the right and decision making people and we may see some positive reactions.

Kindly note that this opportunity should not be used for any personal gains, which may derail the process.

I woule request Planemad to furnish his experience with respect to his Map project, his experience with corporation officials and also his experience with MTC (earlier PTC) officials. He can also furnish his unconference experience wrt any infra related development.

I remember Sridhar's map was used by Metro Rail for their project report. I would request Sridhar to explain his experience with the officials. (I hope that Metro guys did not use his map without permission !?!)

I can also relate my experience with OMR and othe infra projects.

I welcome other forumers who have got similar experience working with Govt officials or NGOs for the infra development.

You must have seen recently that Chennai Mayor is also thinking along similar lines and I hope that our ideas and suggestions will be heard / read by him and other officials.

Please come out with your experience as early as possible.

thanks kannan for pushing this. each time i sit down to write i keep getting pulled for some work :( its been my biggest regret that i havent been able to share the stories behind my work that i have done all these years with others.

although i have been a little stretched for time lately i'll try to help out. you want me to post my experiences here?

Yes PM.

Please write your experience here in this thread. I went thro your old posts on your experience with PTC guys and zone x officials. Please write about them and others.

Your meeting with the british delegation will also make a good story.

SInce it will be a south based (but national) newspaper, chennai, Bangalore issues will be more interesting.

Thanks

Kannan

congrats guys ... Can we submit infra. Suggestions ? Or ideas?

Hi DP,

I have been making a digest of all relevant and innovative suggestions and submitting the same to the authorities concerned for the past 2 years. But how successful and fruitful - I can not say. Atleast, some of the issues and our maps were used by them.

You can continue to write your suggestions in this forum and if found useful, it will surely be conveyed to the authorities.

But the current requirement is about the success stories. I mean the PAST. This article is supposed to stimulate the citizens that they can also contribute in whatever small way, they can.

Similarly, the Govt officials concerned, who helped the citizens and implemented in full / part will also be made happier that their work is recognised.

The Govt will also try to build a platform for all civic issues hwere the contributions will be free and fair.

My suggestion to you and others. Please take up the Garbage clearance issue or similar issue near your house to your ward counsellor / zone officials. Experience yourself how the system works.

My experience is that each of us is justified even if we take up a project in and around our residence / office and we need not take up big tasks for the general city's improvement (It needs a bigger movement / forum).

Good effort Kannan ji. Is this thread, only for experiences or for suggestions and issues as well? As I'm still not clear about the motive of this thread. If it is so, first let us all list out what are all the issues that plague Chennai and we'll take one at a time.
Below issues or suggestions came to my mind related only to Roads (in a way):

1) Right to Disabled Friendly Pedestrian Space
2) Parking slots.
3) Feeders between Suburban, MRTS, MTC and upcoming Metro
4) Lane Marking and sign boards.
5) Digital number plates on all vehicles.
6) Decent Bus Shelters.
7) Get rid of Auto menace.
8) Proper water drains on all roads.
9) Underground Sewage.
10) Remove all overhead cable wires on all roads and use service ducts.
11) Move risky transformers away from pedestrian space.

I have a few suggestions to smoothen traffic in the trunk roads of Chennai like Mount Road, 100 Feet Road, Poonamalee High Road, Kodambakkam High Road and OMR.

My suggestions on Infrastructure

1.The above roads must have flyovers or under passes at all major signals or junctions. There is no point building good flyovers at just one point as the congestion will only shift to the next junction.The building of flyovers can be done one road at a time. The govt can start concentrating on the 100 Feet Road as it carries heavy traffic load in its carriage ways.It is also the only road where the highways like GST, GNT and the Golden Quadrilateral merge.

2.Multistorey parking must be set up on a war scale.All areas in Chennai must have atleast one multistorey car and bike parking.A recent article on traffic chaos on Indian cities mentions that 70 percent of the parking in Indian cities like are illegal and govt themselves are party to it.

3. Along with the Metro Trains for Mass Rapid Transit Systems, the govt must think of the same with the Bus Rapid Transit Systems.This is system is cheap and efficient and easy to start up.The most successful bus rapid system is the Bogota Bus mass rapid System.Their system can be taken as a model.

4.The road contractors must be responsible for the maintenance of the roads under their purview. They must be accountable and responsible for the roads they lay, relay and repair. The habit or paying the road authorities during tendering must be stopped if we want good roads. I have seen the roads in front of the secretariat always in good conditions even after good rains but the roads near it are bad.So the technology is there .


My suggestions on traffic and its problems

1.The traffic lights on these roads must be synchronized so that it forms a green channel rather than a grid lock.

2.The govt. initiated idea of covering all junctions with CCtv must be completed at the earliest so that all erring motorists must be fined by sending fine chellans to their residence and the same sms sent to their mobile numbers. The addresses and telephone numbers of the motorists must be renewed / corrected during their road tax payments and at other regular intervals.The fines collected must be pumped in to the traffic departments for employing more traffic policemen, modernizing the traffic department and other schemes which will improve and discipline the traffic habits of the motorists.

3. Jaywalking must be tackled very strictly. This habit seriously slows traffic and is one of the main reason for road rage.A heavy fine is the right antidote for this.I found that Indians who are careless in India take the laws in Singapore seriously due to way laws are handled by the govt.

4.Another scourge is driving and riding on the wrong side just to avoid a signal or shorten a journey.This habit has now spread to epidemic proportions to women and children who are blissfully unaware of the consequences.


5.The Govt Bus drivers, Corporation drivers, Autorikshaw drivers must be taught to respect and adhere traffic regulations, they must be trained and forced to stop only in the designated stops and stop or park in the correct manner so as not to interrupt moving traffic. They are one who cause maximum traffic pile ups. The govt drivers must be stopped and fined on the spot for erratic and dangerous driving.





Atlast! the true reason for the creation of skycraperCity has now BEEN realised. I have always felt that true enthusiasts,people who knows the needs of the city is represented in this forum. Have always wondered how come the infrastructure officials and people from the govt have not asked the forum what is needed.May be they are not aware of this wonderful forum. I guess this is the break guys!!!!! MAKE USE OF IT MEANINGFULLY.

Good work Kannan infratech

Good effort Kannan ji. Is this thread, only for experiences or for suggestions and issues as well? As I'm still not clear about the motive of this thread. If it is so, first let us all list out what are all the issues that plague Chennai and we'll take one at a time.
Below issues or suggestions came to my mind related only to Roads (in a way):

1) Right to Disabled Friendly Pedestrian Space
2) Parking slots.
3) Feeders between Suburban, MRTS, MTC and upcoming Metro
4) Lane Marking and sign boards.
5) Digital number plates on all vehicles.
6) Decent Bus Shelters.
7) Get rid of Auto menace.
8) Proper water drains on all roads.
9) Underground Sewage.
10) Remove all overhead cable wires on all roads and use service ducts.
11) Move risky transformers away from pedestrian space.

Pl read my earlier mail, which is very clear.

We are not going to suggest anything - new proposals - for this article.

Genaralising all issues will not take us anywhere. Please take a single cause and work on that.

^^ Ok, some people like me live away from Chennai. We don't have a success story, but we are passionate and we want to participate. How can we be a part of this? Whats our bit?

My answers in bold

I have a few suggestions to smoothen traffic in the trunk roads of Chennai like Mount Road, 100 Feet Road, Poonamalee High Road, Kodambakkam High Road and OMR.

My suggestions on Infrastructure

1.The above roads must have flyovers or under passes at all major signals or junctions. There is no point building good flyovers at just one point as the congestion will only shift to the next junction.The building of flyovers can be done one road at a time. The govt can start concentrating on the 100 Feet Road as it carries heavy traffic load in its carriage ways.It is also the only road where the highways like GST, GNT and the Golden Quadrilateral merge.

Please take one junction. Make drawings. Post it in SSC. Add good suggestions and remove flaws. Take it to the concerned authority. Pl meet the EE concerned with the solution. Meet the consultant appointed by the government. Take it to the contractor. Sit with them and make it practical to build. Publish the experience in this thread.

2.Multistorey parking must be set up on a war scale.All areas in Chennai must have atleast one multistorey car and bike parking.A recent article on traffic chaos on Indian cities mentions that 70 percent of the parking in Indian cities like are illegal and govt themselves are party to it.
Select a locality and do as mentioned above in my earlier answer

3. Along with the Metro Trains for Mass Rapid Transit Systems, the govt must think of the same with the Bus Rapid Transit Systems.This is system is cheap and efficient and easy to start up.The most successful bus rapid system is the Bogota Bus mass rapid System.Their system can be taken as a model.
Pros and Cons are there in the BRS. Pl meet the authorities and understand them before deciding whether to go ahead or not.

4.The road contractors must be responsible for the maintenance of the roads under their purview. They must be accountable and responsible for the roads they lay, relay and repair. The habit or paying the road authorities during tendering must be stopped if we want good roads. I have seen the roads in front of the secretariat always in good conditions even after good rains but the roads near it are bad.So the technology is there .
All the NHAI contracts come with min 5 years maintenance and in BOOT model, the lease is for 15 to 30 years. Corporation roads are maintained by corporation. Please go and meet the ward counsellor or the zone official in charge and take it up from there.

My suggestions on traffic and its problems
If you do all the above, then you will be able to understand the issues better and offer a better and practical solution to all the problems mentioned here.

1.The traffic lights on these roads must be synchronized so that it forms a green channel rather than a grid lock.

2.The govt. initiated idea of covering all junctions with CCtv must be completed at the earliest so that all erring motorists must be fined by sending fine chellans to their residence and the same sms sent to their mobile numbers. The addresses and telephone numbers of the motorists must be renewed / corrected during their road tax payments and at other regular intervals.The fines collected must be pumped in to the traffic departments for employing more traffic policemen, modernizing the traffic department and other schemes which will improve and discipline the traffic habits of the motorists.

3. Jaywalking must be tackled very strictly. This habit seriously slows traffic and is one of the main reason for road rage.A heavy fine is the right antidote for this.I found that Indians who are careless in India take the laws in Singapore seriously due to way laws are handled by the govt.

4.Another scourge is driving and riding on the wrong side just to avoid a signal or shorten a journey.This habit has now spread to epidemic proportions to women and children who are blissfully unaware of the consequences.


5.The Govt Bus drivers, Corporation drivers, Autorikshaw drivers must be taught to respect and adhere traffic regulations, they must be trained and forced to stop only in the designated stops and stop or park in the correct manner so as not to interrupt moving traffic. They are one who cause maximum traffic pile ups. The govt drivers must be stopped and fined on the spot for erratic and dangerous driving.

I have 3 questions about this thread. Didn't quite understand the following

1. Are you saying that journalists / media until now are unaware of skyscrapercity? I have friends in media and infact they introduced me to skyscrapercity. Through them I also came to know that few ward / city corporation members, 2nd level political leaders (and even couple of collecters) browse this site freqently. So it's nothing new that journalists and few administrative folks are looking into this forum.

2. I am fine with seperate thread for success stories to motivate people to do extra. What I don't understand is how in the world success stories in skyscrapercity is related to media. Is someone going to carry the news that we post here on air?

3. Why this thread have to be created under Chennai forums? Will it not be appropriate if created under TN forums? Passion restricted to Chennai? Duh:lol:

^^ Kongu naatu singam, neenga yepavumae success stories solradhilla. So, idhu ungalukkaana idam illa. :lol:

^^ Kongu naatu singam, neenga yepavumae success stories solradhilla. So, idhu ungalukkaana idam illa. :lol:

Kayyi / Kaalu ellam nalla irukara oruthan marathon ottapandhayathula oduravanga end line vazhiya nadanthu poyi naanum marathon-la kalandhu jeyichuputteen-u success story sonnanam. Appadi ellam ennala success story solla mudiyathu than. :lol:

- Edho ennala mudinja alavukku "real issue-s" la badhikka patta tea-estate tozhilalinga suya udhavi kuzhu amaipukku pana udhavi seyyaradhu,

- Freelance journalism vazhiya nadakurra aniyayathai media-vula ezhuthi awarness create seyarathu,

- ungala madhiri alungalukkaga madras-la naalu sengal aduki cement poosura velai seyyara thozhilalingaloda pullakuttingala (displaced slum dwellers) padika vekkirathu

ippadi urupadi ellatha velai seiyura enakku yedhu success story? Oru 20-25 varusham kalichu avangaloda pulla kuttinga padichu vandha than success, adhu varaikkum enakku failure story than:-)

Oru passionoda Chennai-la irukara naalu roadukku mattum oru plan-a kuduthu ippadi sengala adukki cement poosunga-nu sollara alavukku periya visionary kidaythu naan. So I agree I don't deserve to be in this thread. and idhu ellam oru story-annu chennai vasinga en mela payuveenganum theriyum. So ennaiya neenga veratarathukku muunala naanae veliya poren. Unless you folks want to move this thread to TN forums, I am not going to post my inputs on this thread anymore.

Oru thread-ukku out of chennai samuga needhi kidaikavae ivaalavu porada vendiyirukku naatula:-)

I think what Kannan has asked, in this topic, is something most of us would not be able to contribute. With all due respect, how many of us has had the patience to take a petition to the govt. office or sit with a govt. official with an intention to contribute to some developments. Its a rather tough ask.

Infact, hitherto I did'nt think there is a forum or a process in the govt. offices that encourages/embraces common man's contribution as they are usually shoo-ed away as an unwanted annoyance. I've visited CMDA @ Egmore 3 times in the past 2 years only to return back with scanty attention given.

But, I am all ears for such positive stories..

Kannan, if you do receive PMs/emails which toe-s the line of your expectations, pl. share it with us. So we can learn a lesson or two.

@konguthamizhan:
I think you totally missed the point.

The newspaper is looking for news on How common men contribute to the society esp infra development. Since the news paper is published from Chennai and Bangalore and Gurgaon (though it is a national newspaper), Chennai, Bangalore issues are more welcome. Even other success stories from rest of TN are welcome.

The success stories can be even a small one -like the CMWSSB engineer promptly attending the sewage block and clearing the same on a holiday. Your effort of reaching him and his coming on a holiday to rectify. I have seen a TWAD engineer, deputed for the Anna Centenary function at Kanchi arranging drinking water for the all on his own and making the arrangement permanent even after the function.

Like our PlaneMad who pestered the corporation officials and MTC officials to get his data for his map project and now his product thro openstretmap is so useful to everybody.

The idea is to create a common forum recognised by the authorities where common men also participate and contribute his ideas. Unless we prove that our ideas have already been used by Govt or how sincere we were in implementing somthing, SSC opinions will not be given due attention.

Please be positive and help to create awareness among the public that we can also contribute and do something.

@ramvaradan
As Ram says, many of us visit CMDA, DTCP, MES / TNEB, CMWSSB /TWAD, Corporation / Panchayat offices for our own personal issues. But when it comes to a public cause - like cleaning of our roads, street lighting, storm water drains , roads restoration etc, we do not put max effort since most of us think that the authorities will not listen to us. May be true to some extent also.

I am not boasting, but to give an example, I have to say this.
I live in KB Nagar, Adyar from 1995 onwards and our street, being a blind end street has access only from one side. The natural slope is from west to east and from south to north. Due to this, the rainwater of nearby streets flowed into our street and even after rains stopped, we would have water logging for min a week or so.The existing storm water drains along the canal bank road were blocked due to MRTS construction and the rain water could not be drained into the B Canal.

The corporation engineers came and went all these years and budget was sanctioned (as per the normal corpn rates) at least 7 times over 8 years. Tenders were called 12 times. No contractor was willing to take up since the flow could not be reversed.

But this factor was not revealed to us all these years and we were of the opinion that the budget is too low and hence the contractors can not make profit. My wife and her Exnora friends kept the pressure on all these years. Last year the new EE, who was going through the files and the letters / petitions called us for a discussion and explained that this is not technically feasible.

Once we understood the problems, finding a solution was easier (with our engg background and experience with infra projects). We mapped the street and took hydraulic levels and made drawings and estimates and submitted them.

We designed slopes (inside the drain) underground in the opp direction so that through the drains, the water will flow from our street to canal bank road and then to B Canal.
The cost for the same was more than the double of the estimate. We were even ready to pool money to some extent but were still short by a huge margin.

The exnora group took up this matter to the commissioner and within a month, the new budget was sanctioned. New tender was floated and work was finished before the last monsoon.

Is this not a success story, which will inspire people to contribute. The co operation extended by the EE and the Commissioner were so good and I feel that they have to be appreciated publicly.

Though there was some selfish interest involved vis a vis our locality, it was for a common cause.

I hope that I have made it clear.

^^ Well thats really fine. But you have to let us know our bit in this? Or do we have to just witness this thread?

^^ Ok, some people like me live away from Chennai. We don't have a success story, but we are passionate and we want to participate. How can we be a part of this? Whats our bit?

^^ Well thats really fine. But you have to let us know our bit in this? Or do we have to just witness this thread?

SSC can always give suggestions as we have been doing. Taking to the next level is what we are trying. Our ideas are not given due recognition right now since we are a small community mainly web based. We should also admit that we come out with worthy and practical ideas and solutions very rarely.

What I find here is more a WISH LIST and not solutions which are feasible. There are 1000s of similar wishlists and we get lost in the crowd. If we have to be noticed, we should give solutions and extend our help in whatever way we can. We can make a difference - even if it is small today.

When I worked with Anna Univ students, I found that Panagal park Muti Storeyed Car Parking Project has been in vogue from 1980 onwards. We have not still seen the result. Why? Many of us want a MLCP at Panagal Park. But what we have done from our side? What are the issues involved and why it is not happening? T Nagar shop owners can finance the same and corporation can get it free. Why then the delay?

We read the newspapers and go by the Govt announcements. But what is the ground level realities and difficulties. The local corporation officials can tell the truth. Some other may have a feasible solution also. Have we met them?

This is not our job. How can I waste my time and effort for a lost cause when the issue is pending from 1980 onwards. Who will listen to us? Should we do dharnas like Traffic Ramasamy, who is fighting the biggies of T Nagar? Is it effective? Has the tall buildings in T Nagar without Car Parks been demolished? WHAT IS HAPPENING?

I want SSC to find an answer to this and similar problems. This small effort - this thread - is a small step towards PUBLIC AWARENESS that even a common man can do and contribute.

SSC can always give suggestions as we have been doing. Taking to the next level is what we are trying. Our ideas are not given due recognition right now since we are a small community mainly web based. We should also admit that we come out with worthy and practical ideas and solutions very rarely.

What I find here is more a WISH LIST and not solutions which are feasible. There are 1000s of similar wishlists and we get lost in the crowd. If we have to be noticed, we should give solutions and extend our help in whatever way we can. We can make a difference - even if it is small today.

When I worked with Anna Univ students, I found that Panagal park Muti Storeyed Car Parking Project has been in vogue from 1980 onwards. We have not still seen the result. Why? Many of us want a MLCP at Panagal Park. But what we have done from our side? What are the issues involved and why it is not happening? T Nagar shop owners can finance the same and corporation can get it free. Why then the delay?

We read the newspapers and go by the Govt announcements. But what is the ground level realities and difficulties. The local corporation officials can tell the truth. Some other may have a feasible solution also. Have we met them?

This is not our job. How can I waste my time and effort for a lost cause when the issue is pending from 1980 onwards. Who will listen to us? Should we do dharnas like Traffic Ramasamy, who is fighting the biggies of T Nagar? Is it effective? Has the tall buildings in T Nagar without Car Parks been demolished? WHAT IS HAPPENING?

I want SSC to find an answer to this and similar problems. This small effort - this thread - is a small step towards PUBLIC AWARENESS that even a common man can do and contribute.

Crazy Idea... forgive me if it is :)

1. Find out how many of those building are structurally safe.
2. Bite the bullet and let them all add 4 or 5 more floors on the top for car parking.
3. Use industrial elevators to transport cars up and down. Like a valet service. If there is no space for such elevators construct it between buildings and use it for both the tenants.

Is this not a success story, which will inspire people to contribute. The co operation extended by the EE and the Commissioner were so good and I feel that they have to be appreciated publicly.

Though there was some selfish interest involved vis a vis our locality, it was for a common cause.

I hope that I have made it clear.

:applause: thats a triumphant story of collective smartness and perseverance

what am afraid is :-
the forum participants have no such experience, not even close
and/or
those folks who have such experience are not tuned to this forum

what am hopeful is :-
there will be some day when we get hands-on training on such stuff .. I'd love to a fly-on-the-wall when you folks go about interacting with the CMDA/EE official. just to know the timelines you set, the level of depth you delve in...

We need to empower the 'talkers' to become 'doers'. Its not to shift the blame entirely on the system. But, we do need practical handbooks to deal with public issues, on how to become more productive in the city infra-structure dealings. Folks such as Kannan, PlaneMad can give public lectures on these things.

One thought:

Why can't passionate Chennai forumers staying in Chennai get together on a weekend for lunch /dinner, exchange your phone numbers with Kannan and have some discussion. Kannan ji, can you present something about what you expect from a starter or motivate, to create a success story like the one you had? Post some photos here as well.

I hope many forumers will be ready for this. Whoever is interested for a get together raise up here. We NRIs will be missing that, atleast we could sponsor/contribute your lunch/dinner and we could see some photos :(

Crazy Idea... forgive me if it is :)

1. Find out how many of those building are structurally safe.
2. Bite the bullet and let them all add 4 or 5 more floors on the top for car parking.
3. Use industrial elevators to transport cars up and down. Like a valet service. If there is no space for such elevators construct it between buildings and use it for both the tenants.

Sometime, we have to think out of the box to find a solution. So nothing wrong.

In Hongkong, I noticed that there is no compound wall and no setback between the building and the compound wall. The setback between two buildings have been made into proper roads. You step out of building into the road directly. This has solved the traffic problem to a great extent.

Generally, all the buildings built at T Nagar are very safe structurally - rather over designed to some extent.

Automatic Mechanical Car Parking has already been suggested. I even did a video & slide show on Mechanical MLCP during one of the FICCI meeting. Even CM saw it.

The suggestions and solutions being offered to Corporation are generally short term and biased. That is why the delay. People are working at cross purpose and there is no meeting point.

One thought:

Why can't passionate Chennai forumers staying in Chennai get together on a weekend for lunch /dinner, exchange your phone numbers with Kannan and have some discussion. Kannan ji, can you present something about what you expect from a starter or motivate, to create a success story like the one you had? Post some photos here as well.

I hope many forumers will be ready for this. Whoever is interested for a get together raise up here. We NRIs will be missing that, atleast we could sponsor/contribute your lunch/dinner and we could see some photos :(

WC Gokul (Goram vlad) suggested the same yesterday. Nice idea. It is long time, since we met personally. But PlaneMad is not in Chennai now. I will check if he can also come. Can we list the people who are interested to attend. Probably, one of the coming holidays can be selected.

I assure you guys that the Public Work is infectious. Once you see small successes, you will be hooked to it. Collective effort is always more fruitful. Mantra is DON'T COMPLAIN. OFFER PRACTICAL SOLUTION.

http://www.livemint.com/2010/09/15194356/Chennai-tries-to-fix-its-water.html?atype=tp

Please read this article and offer solutions / suggestions / for or against.

Just a small exercise but the issue has very big dimension that too multiple dimensions.

Infra issues are not so simple to solve as many of us think.

Please treat this as an educational exercise.

(Ennada, Vadhyar velai Parkarane Ivan - Pozhuthu Pohala ?)

WC Gokul (Goram vlad) suggested the same yesterday. Nice idea. It is long time, since we met personally. But PlaneMad is not in Chennai now. I will check if he can also come. Can we list the people who are interested to attend. Probably, one of the coming holidays can be selected.

I assure you guys that the Public Work is infectious. Once you see small successes, you will be hooked to it. Collective effort is always more fruitful. Mantra is DON'T COMPLAIN. OFFER PRACTICAL SOLUTION.

I welcome this activity, any idea of how the people from abroad can help/participate,with the help of maps,local historical knowledge. then exchange ideas through skype or something, not sure whether it would be feasible.

secondly this activity should not be like our college days, where we decide to meet atleast once in a month, then six months and a year, but sure nobody does it .

Thirdly not sure how good/bad this idea could be,let us target a particular location and find the practical solution.instead of everyone concentrating in their own locality.

Thirdly not sure how good/bad this idea could be,let us target a particular location and find the practical solution.instead of everyone concentrating in their own locality.

I second that idea. We need to focus on one small issue in a locality.. Until we smell success and gain expertise, we cannot scatter our attention.

Skype video conference would be great as well.

NRI's can try to arrange exchange programmes for City Corporation officials, Police officers, Traffic & Transport Planners.

Kannan, It will be a great if we (NRI's) could join via skype or some such option. In the worst case, if we can finalize the key topics and we can invite the ideas ahead of time to give the folks who meet in person something more concrete to confer. My only suggestion is to keep the list of items to be few and focussed rather than everything under the chennai sun.

Sometime, we have to think out of the box to find a solution. So nothing wrong.

In Hongkong, I noticed that there is no compound wall and no setback between the building and the compound wall. The setback between two buildings have been made into proper roads. You step out of building into the road directly. This has solved the traffic problem to a great extent.

Generally, all the buildings built at T Nagar are very safe structurally - rather over designed to some extent.

Automatic Mechanical Car Parking has already been suggested. I even did a video & slide show on Mechanical MLCP during one of the FICCI meeting. Even CM saw it.

The suggestions and solutions being offered to Corporation are generally short term and biased. That is why the delay. People are working at cross purpose and there is no meeting point.

On my recent trip to New York City I saw the same.

There is not setback between adjacent buildings, you step out of the building right into the side walk. The streets are really narrow and one-ways but the total width of the sidewaks are as wide as the main carriage way itself.

The traffic flow is smooth. Can some of the chennai roads be made like that - reduce the carriage way and increase the sidewalk and make them oneways.

Just as an example, Praja NammaRailu effort was in the news (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/96974/connectivity-counts.html) today. One member of the team isnt in India, one other member was on a ship sailing in the Atlantic when he worked on the report. So location isnt a constraint its the quality of content that matters. You will notice from the different views of the authorities, like Kannan says, talking and understanding their viewpoints is essential in any solution else it quickly becomes out of touch with reality. Its always about how to move people with different roles in administration towards the solution you come up with. Here is where you will need onground presence. So always work in teams and have a nice mix of members usually somebody strong on the ground who can work with govt.

We need to empower the 'talkers' to become 'doers'.
True and that I think is the attempt, to get more people into the fold of realizing solutions. But we need to keep in mind not all talkers will be doers or that only doers should talk. The advantage doers will have is the on ground exposure to practicality. Talkers should leverage that without getting overwhelmed by the realism and dropping the solution but making it richer with practicality

NRI's can try to arrange exchange programmes for City Corporation officials, Police officers, Traffic & Transport Planners.

Can you elaborate on that please?

Any Progress/updates?

I read that for the road-side shop keepers in T.nagar they have constructed a building and have asked to move it there. we can work on that as a pilot project and make it a hygenic and clean one, with help of administrators.

Any volunteers.

I read that for the road-side shop keepers in T.nagar they have constructed a building and have asked to move it there. we can work on that as a pilot project and make it a hygenic and clean one, with help of administrators.

Any volunteers.

I can volunteer from my side, but iam outside india now.

Those SSCians, who want to air their responsible views and suggestions or solutions for the Coastal Elevated Highway project can contact the following.

www.thepetitionsite.com/.../abandon-the-elevated-highway-and-save-chennai-beaches/ -

http://tnenvis.nic.in/urban_experts.htm

1. Dr.N.Jayapalan,
Scientist & Head,
NEERI, CSIR Campus,
Taramani, Chennai-113. Eco-city
2. Dr.Janagarajan,
Professor,
Madras Institute of Development Studies,
Gandhi Nagar, Adyar,
Chennai-20. Water Resource and Utilization
3. Mr. M.G.Devasahayam
Founder Trustee
Citizen's Alliance for Sustainable Living UNCHS (Habitat) Centre,
5 th Floor, CMDA Towers,
Egmore, Chennai-600 008. Eco-City and Energy conservation
4. G. Dattari,
Project Adviser,
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat),
5 th Floor, MMDA Towers,
8, Gandhi Irwin Road,
Egmore, Chennai-600 008 Urban Planner

Mr.Devasahayam's SUSTAIN's website: www.sustainindia.com

A Shankar
Friends of the Beach, Chennai
Tel : 91 44 4993199 (office)

Vincent D'Souza
Mylapore Times & Adyar Times
MYLAPORE TIMES
Shop No.27, 2nd Floor
Corporation Shopping Complex
77, C. P. Ramaswamy Road
Alwarpet, Chennai-18.
Phones:
Advt: 2498 2244, 2467 1122.
Editorial: 24660269.
E-mail:
Advt. : mylaporetimes@gmail.com
Editorial : mytimesedit@gmail.com
Adyar Times
Shop 11,Corporation Shopping Complex, Indira Nagar 3rd Avenue, Adyar, Chennai, 600020
Phone:
+91-44-24416724, +91-44-24913602, +91-44-24451819

A Shankar
Friends of the Beach, Chennai
Tel : 91 44 24993199 (office)

I read that for the road-side shop keepers in T.nagar they have constructed a building and have asked to move it there. we can work on that as a pilot project and make it a hygenic and clean one, with help of administrators.

Any volunteers.

This is a new building in Pondy Bazzar. Lots of fight going on for the allotment.

http://smartdatacollective.com/stevebennett/27460/value-crowdsourced-insight

I have just been reading David Cameron's blog where he talks about an interesting hack from India. You can read the story here but in short it is about Arun Ganesh, a student at the National Institute of Design in Bangalore, who was frustrated that the poor quality of the bus timetable for Chennai. With over 5,000 bus routes this was a real world problem for Chennai's 4 million residents. How did Arun solve this? He created his own map, crowd-sourced data from his fellow bus passengers and then published the new improved map along with an accompanying app BusRoutes.in for interactive route planning. The maps use OpenStreetMap - a free editable map of the whole world. In 3 days he had crowd-sourced enough data to kick-start everything. An impressive solution to an everyday data problem.






I know that corporate crowdsourcing for R&D is nothing new and prediction markets are gaining some traction. Take a look also at InnoCentive for some very serious idea outsourcing of industrial problems and Brand Tag for insight into what people really think of your brand.
I wonder if it is possible to apply similar ingenuity for information management problems within the corporation? What problems am I talking about? For me today in my role they include:

•Creating a single business glossary across a conglomerate of businesses
•Building a knowledge portal to collect information useful to management report writers and users
•Identifying solutions to complex analytic problems such as:
◦predicting propensities to substitute physical products with digital ones
◦measures of copyright protected revenues.
My initial thoughts are to invest in the following capabilities:

•Business Glossary - set-up an intranet portal (probably using SharePoint because that's what we use internally) to publish glossary term definitions and link these to discussion forums where anyone who is interested can discuss, provide feedback and mediate agreement on standard terms and definitions
•Knowledge Portal - another portal linked directly into our reporting platforms (SAP, Oracle, TM1, etc.) so that our:
◦Decision makers have access to use and can contribute to wiki's, FAQ's, known issues and documentation (tutorials, reporting guidelines, etc.) about our information assets and related business processes.
◦Project Staff and Analysts have access to the scope, structure and lineage of data from the report semantic layer back through the data marts and warehouses and into the source systems where data is created.
•Analytic Solutions - you guessed it: YAP (yet-another-portal) that lets people publish data sets that have either been purchased from 3rd parties (such as market research) or contain discovered insight that may be useful to others.
My hope is that these investments will deliver not just better support to our decision makers but also better engagement with the information they use. Give them a sense that they not only own their management reporting but also feel empowered to improve the information asset without relying on IT experts.

This may not be as innovative as people like Arun have achieved, but in the my corporate world these are sufficient wins. Maybe we will even create more super users in the organisation? Sounds good to me.

Looking again out into the rest of the world and taking a lateral step from directly involving your users, kaggle is a site that aims to facilitate better predictions by providing a platform for data mining, forecasting and bioinformatics competitions. As a side note, it is interesting to see that 'kagglers' favourite software is R, with SAS now a fairly distant 3rd in popularity. SPSS is even further away with only a quarter of the users that R has.


--------------------

KUDOS ARUN

:applause:

^^ Arun is our member PlaneMad.

Is this thread just like any other threads? I initially felt the difference now I'm loosing my hope. Nobody is interested from Chennai? I can't believe. :ohno:
Common Chennaites where went your passion?

Is this thread just like any other threads? I initially felt the difference now I'm loosing my hope. Nobody is interested from Chennai? I can't believe. :ohno:
Common Chennaites where went your passion?

gevermentu-kku tax katti avangala parthu urimaila naan kathunalae nakkal adikareenga. SSC karanga enna gevermenta? oru passion-la thana seyaranga? avangala parthu edhukku soundu udareenga? Idhukku ellam hope loosu panna, kodi kanakulla panam vechu onnumae seyatha gevermenta parthu naan hope loosu pannunathu thappungala chennai payithiyam sare? oops Mad4Madras sare?:)

Rasa ippovum solluren, individuals have limitation irrespective of however passionate they are. Unmayana passion irudhichinna onnu arasiyalla gudhinga, illa gevernemta parthu kelvi kellunga, pathirikkaila eluthuga, awareness create pannunga. Atleast unga chennai coouvatha thalageela puraturomnu anga irukaravangala 50km thalli kudi vechangalaE, andha madiri "real humans" pulla kuttingala padikka veyyunga. Andha madiri allungalukku help seyyanumna I can give you leads.

Adha vittuputtu SSC-la yarum edhuvum eluda matengareenganu a/c room-la ukkandhukittu solladeenga. Gevermentu seyallainu sollunga ungalukku urimai irukku:lol:

^^

1) English please, it's bugging to read lines of tamil typed in english, especially when you are belting out your cynicism.

2) This is a skyscraper and urban development forum, so we will focus more on that.

3) Refer point 1 and 2.

gevermentu-kku tax katti avangala parthu urimaila naan kathunalae nakkal adikareenga. SSC karanga enna gevermenta? oru passion-la thana seyaranga? avangala parthu edhukku soundu udareenga? Idhukku ellam hope loosu panna, kodi kanakulla panam vechu onnumae seyatha gevermenta parthu naan hope loosu pannunathu thappungala chennai payithiyam sare? oops Mad4Madras sare?:)

Rasa ippovum solluren, individuals have limitation irrespective of however passionate they are. Unmayana passion irudhichinna onnu arasiyalla gudhinga, illa gevernemta parthu kelvi kellunga, pathirikkaila eluthuga, awareness create pannunga. Atleast unga chennai coouvatha thalageela puraturomnu anga irukaravangala 50km thalli kudi vechangalaE, andha madiri "real humans" pulla kuttingala padikka veyyunga. Andha madiri allungalukku help seyyanumna I can give you leads.

Adha vittuputtu SSC-la yarum edhuvum eluda matengareenganu a/c room-la ukkandhukittu solladeenga. Gevermentu seyallainu sollunga ungalukku urimai irukku:lol:
You are paying tax to government, :nuts: velinatla irundutu nan govenmentuku tax katrenu oru poi. Nan enga arasiyalla kudhikanum aduku avasiyam ila irukravane podum. Nalladu seiya katchi theva ila, padikada muttal than ida nambuvan. Neer than karunanidhiyum sari ila, JJ um sari ila, vera evanum urupudi ilanu polambi thekada thread kidayadu inda forum la. En nenga arasiyal katchi arambikalame?
SSC members sendu neraya naladu panerukanga SSC-Trivandrum members, ipo SSC-Madurai arambichurukanga, maram valakrada pathi pesaranga, keka sandhoshama iruku. Ade pola SSC-Chennai members onna senda en Kannan sir solrada seiya mudiadu. Kastam than, udane elaralayum varamudiayadu, adukaga kupudrada vida mudiyadula. Anda velaya than nan seiyaren.

Ena romba sirika vechadu unga kadaisi vasagam than. Irundalum ungaluku vetkame ilama pochu ipolam, ukanda edathla kalaikarada pathi yaru pesaranga parunga. Nenga Kongu-tamizhan ila Bongu tamizhan :lol:

PS: Don't want to reply in English, leave it.

^^

This will be the last time I will be using tamil on Chennai forum. I promise. Everybody pleech echuch me..

Dear M4M,

I replied to all your criticisms that you raised here and on the other thread on the Legislative assembly thread. Having said that

NaaN penna porandhu, enakku oru maamiyaar irundha eppadi irukkumNu naan sila naal yosichu parthathundu. Andha kuraiya indha SSC moolama pokkinadhukku ungalukku nemba danks. hehehe!!!

^^ :lol: :cheers: Of all the GODS I hate, here is one, atleast whom I can trust. En marumagal.

Guys, I'll be coming to Chennai for 2weeks leave from Oct29th till Nov13th. Is it possible to meet? Who else are ok?

USA USA THAAN .... UK ... UK Thaan.... India india thaann..

namala yarayum thirutha mudiyathu ... veetula irundhu bus stop varadhuku

pathu nimisham agum ... adhukula ... pakathula varavam ... auto driver

epadi koranjadhu oru 4 peravathu echi thupiduvanga ...kanula thusi
vizhundhu ... oru second kana kasaku rathukula ... munadi echi thupitu
poitan ... dash fellow ... see each one has to have self discipline

namalungala sathiyama thirutha mudiyathu ... so dont waste energy

Guys, I'll be coming to Chennai for 2weeks leave from Oct29th till Nov13th. Is it possible to meet? Who else are ok?

I'll be in Chennai on Nov 5,6 and 7th.

USA USA THAAN .... UK ... UK Thaan.... India india thaann..

namala yarayum thirutha mudiyathu ... veetula irundhu bus stop varadhuku

pathu nimisham agum ... adhukula ... pakathula varavam ... auto driver

epadi koranjadhu oru 4 peravathu echi thupiduvanga ...kanula thusi
vizhundhu ... oru second kana kasaku rathukula ... munadi echi thupitu
poitan ... dash fellow ... see each one has to have self discipline

namalungala sathiyama thirutha mudiyathu ... so dont waste energy

kjagade2 - If you can get the message from the following two quotes, I promise you will see a world of change around.

You be the change you want to see in the world - M.K. Gandhi

The way we look at things, things change.

kjagade2 - If you can get the message from the following two quotes, I promise you will see a world of change around.

You be the change you want to see in the world - M.K. Gandhi

The way we look at things, things change.



Add to that "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself" !!!

Hi Kannan,

I have written to the office of the CM, Deputy CM, Mayor and Chennai City Commissioner about our forum. I have also given them a brief about this forum and how it functions. I would be glad even if one of the mentioned could check the forum. I know that once the go through the Chennai forum they will know how serious the forumers are. I did this because I feel there is a wealth of information in our forums that can translate into the development of this city. I feel the the present leaders are open minded. They know that only infrastructure can bring in the money and development.

If quotes from our forum is regularly aired in the press then more and more people from all sections of the society will aware of our forum. We should start building by creating awareness of skyscrapercity

Hi Guys!

There is an opportunity for our forum members to air their experience to the press.

Our forumers, who have already contributed to the upgradation of infrastructure in any way can come out with their experience with proof. They will be interviewed and the selected quotes will be published.

The aim is to prove to the world at large that

- Common men are interested in the welfare of the city / town they are living in / they belong to.

- Meaningful proposals were given by the forumers to the Govt / NGOs.

- The Govt / Depts were also participating in the exercise.

The result of this exercise may lead to the formation of a core group of interested people being in the consultative panel for the city's improvement.

Our ideas and voices will be heard by the right and decision making people and we may see some positive reactions.

Kindly note that this opportunity should not be used for any personal gains, which may derail the process.

I woule request Planemad to furnish his experience with respect to his Map project, his experience with corporation officials and also his experience with MTC (earlier PTC) officials. He can also furnish his unconference experience wrt any infra related development.

I remember Sridhar's map was used by Metro Rail for their project report. I would request Sridhar to explain his experience with the officials. (I hope that Metro guys did not use his map without permission !?!)

I can also relate my experience with OMR and othe infra projects.

I welcome other forumers who have got similar experience working with Govt officials or NGOs for the infra development.

You must have seen recently that Chennai Mayor is also thinking along similar lines and I hope that our ideas and suggestions will be heard / read by him and other officials.

Please come out with your experience as early as possible.

Recently I saw a man who was in a poor health condition. He was unconscious and flies were swarming him. I quickly called 108 and told them that this person will die in a few hours if treatment was not given. They asked me for my number which I gave and they told me to accompany him in the ambulance. I told them that i was going for an appointment and I will not be able to come. The people from 108 told me that without an assistant the govt hospitals will not take in patients. I was surprised but reminded them that he has the right to first aid. The ambulance came in 45 minutes and was treated the man.I saw this as i was driving back to my office. I do not know whether this poor man was taken in or not. After a few weeks I got a call from 108 checking about the condition of the man and I told them i was not aware of it as I was not related to him.

The formality of having an assistant in case of emergency must be removed as soon as possible as the very cause of emergency is lost here.

@madrasi : did u get any reply ?

Good Question!:) No reply yet. The reason I wrote to them is to create awareness about our forum.I am not eliciting replies from them that is not my idea. I think I will look into other ways to create awareness about us. I think it is time.....

@madrasi : did u get any reply ?

My 2 cents.

It will be good to have grooves ( which will cause vibration when driven over it) to the end of lanes splitting the lanes and the shoulder and if it is a single lane road and if there is no median in between the roads it is best to have grooves in middle of the roads as well.

1) I myself was saved once because of this feature , i was going for a long drive in highway and was little sleepy and once was about to go out of the lane towards the shoulder and i drove over the groove and it caused vibrations and immediately i regained control and came inside the lanes.

2) Similary when there is groove in middle of the road , if somebody by mistake crosses the middle line towards the opposite side of traffic , he will be alerted because of these
grooves.

Awesome it has been reported in The hindu property plus...

Kanna sir great efforts :cheers:

Here it is

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6463/dsc09729.jpg

^^:cheers::cheers:

Today is the red letter day for Skyscrapercity - Chennai. Not every day that a forum gets a half page exclusively for themselves that too in The Hindu. I was pretty excited and showed it to my kids and my wife and they were wondering what the fuss was all about.I had to explain to them what this forum was and they appreciated what the forum was doing.

The article was very reflective of the forum itself. It was informative and showed the readers of Hindu what this forum is all about. It was nice to see the forumers like Kannan and Plane mad in the article. There were a few people whom I have noticed in the forum but nevertheless it was nice to see them too. I sincerely wished I was there too.

We now have another platform but I am really curious to know how are we going forward from here? Kannan! Plane mad! please let us know the other nit bits that where discussed. Do you guys feel that we are in the right direction? Will forumers be called in the future to discuss other new projects? Cant wait

WELL DONE GUYS!!!!!! 2 CHEERS TO ALL :cheers2: :cheers2:

Here it is

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6463/dsc09729.jpg

:cheers: good start....

Guys!

Let us celebrate today.

Venue: Amethyst, Gopalapuram
Time: 7.00 pm.

Kannan
99620 843330

Wonder full news , though new to this forum I thoroughly enjoy the content and the discussion. With the world so wide and far to see the developments in your neibhourhood with photos and updates seems as if you are walking thru the place. The article in Hindu should bring manymore enthusiastic bloggers to this forum.

Wonder full news , though new to this forum I thoroughly enjoy the content and the discussion. With the world so wide and far to see the developments in your neibhourhood with photos and updates seems as if you are walking thru the place. The article in Hindu should bring manymore enthusiastic bloggers to this forum.

The article in Hindu should bring manymore enthusiastic bloggers to this forum
It will also bring in more problem creators,distractors, but that is the way life goes on

Guys!

Let us celebrate today.

Venue: Amethyst, Gopalapuram
Time: 7.00 pm.

Kannan
99620 843330

Hi Kannan, Plz, keep us posted on the discussions, as most of us can't make it there. Thanks.

Planemad,

You look really hot....Am totally turned on.....

i wish i could join the celebration. Have a good time guys!!

Guys!

Let us celebrate today.

Venue: Amethyst, Gopalapuram
Time: 7.00 pm.

Kannan
99620 843330

Congrates and all the best for the meet :)

E-Version of the same article

http://www.hindu.com/pp/2010/10/23/stories/2010102350030100.htm

Looks the photo in the article is little old. Do share the meet pics.

^^ The photo is from the last meet. Yes, I'm waiting for updates too.

E-Version of the same article

http://www.hindu.com/pp/2010/10/23/stories/2010102350030100.htm

Looks the photo in the article is little old. Do share the meet pics.

Great leap for SSC Chennai members. My hearty congratulation to all members for our first step towards becoming the voice of Chennai.

Soon we will be relevant to politicians and bureaucrats.

Once again thanks to all the veteran hardworking members and my apologies for not actively involving on the field in Chennai due to my residence overseas.

Guys please consider forming a formal society or association with memberships.
Our members can also assist with funding and field work.

Wowowowowow...!!! :banana::banana::banana:

Am totally excited, great news and congrats to everyone. Wish I was in Chennai to meet you all.

And its nice to see some faces behind the cyber names :-)

A milestone on our way to paradise! Congrats guys.

Great news guys,
unfortunately i left chennai on 21st. please post updates on the meet.

Oh great. Good going. How many forumers were present?. How was the meeting?

Commendable are the efforts of the pioneer activists. First was intellectual ferment. It manifested in the Forum. Now into the limelight of the print medium. It is hoped that there will be a wider reach in both Tamil and English. Next need is positively radio and TV.

The Chennai Initiative is sure to honeycomb TN. Madurai is already on the threshold. Other cities will not be far behind. The TN threads are vibrant and prolific. The thinking of the Tamils requires a secure anchorage to make way for infra construction.

Once Dr. Radhakrsihnan said that in his approach to philosophical studies he was greatly influenced by a statement of Karl Marx-- " The task of philosophy has been to interpret history, our mission is to change it".

Congrats guys 8) Missing chennai :(

Congrats to Mr.Kannan and SSC-Chennai team.:cheers:

If there is any meet after Nov 15th I can also join.

Congrats guys 8) Missing chennai :(

Me too, but I have just 50 more days to go in Bang :banana:

Guys!

The write up happened a little premature. It was supposed to be after we give more details on the success stories. Probably, they had deadlines to honour and only Planemad and me could be contacted.

The photo was an old one, published in SSC, taken last year.

We may probably use this publicity as launchpad to do more fruitful things on ground.

All our efforts, if not recognised and some implemented will be all waste of time and effort.

Local guys have to pull up their socks and come forward. Let us concentrate on one issue at a time to have a greater focus.

As such, I had called a social meeting on 30-10-2010 saturday. If more guys can come, if the date is changed, we can do that. But postponement is always ineffective in a public gathering and the enthu goes down over time.

I wanted to avoid Diwali week end since many guys will be travelling homeward. I personally do not have an issue on 6th or 7th Nov at Chennai.Even afterwards, Saturday night or Sunday afternoon or evening after 6th nov is also ok.

Please confirm which date is convenient to all.

Kannan

6th Nov is ok for me.

Guys!

The write up happened a little premature. It was supposed to be after we give more details on the success stories. Probably, they had deadlines to honour and only Planemad and me could be contacted.

The photo was an old one, published in SSC, taken last year.

We may probably use this publicity as launchpad to do more fruitful things on ground.

All our efforts, if not recognised and some implemented will be all waste of time and effort.

Local guys have to pull up their socks and come forward. Let us concentrate on one issue at a time to have a greater focus.

As such, I had called a social meeting on 30-10-2010 saturday. If more guys can come, if the date is changed, we can do that. But postponement is always ineffective in a public gathering and the enthu goes down over time.

I wanted to avoid Diwali week end since many guys will be travelling homeward. I personally do not have an issue on 6th or 7th Nov at Chennai.Even afterwards, Saturday night or Sunday afternoon or evening after 6th nov is also ok.

Please confirm which date is convenient to all.

Kannan

Hats off to you Kannan and others. You have all been doing a commendable job. I wish I could attend the gathering.

6th Nov is ok for me.
For me too..

Thanks for taking the initiative. The journalist got in touch with me but I fell sick and wa then traveling quite a bit, so never got back.

Also kudos to all the contributors, without whom this forum wouldn't be ticking.

Me too, but I have just 50 more days to go in Bang :banana:

Envy you...don't know how many months, years......still to go on for me.

Guys!

The write up happened a little premature. It was supposed to be after we give more details on the success stories. Probably, they had deadlines to honour and only Planemad and me could be contacted.

The photo was an old one, published in SSC, taken last year.

We may probably use this publicity as launchpad to do more fruitful things on ground.

All our efforts, if not recognised and some implemented will be all waste of time and effort.

Local guys have to pull up their socks and come forward. Let us concentrate on one issue at a time to have a greater focus.

As such, I had called a social meeting on 30-10-2010 saturday. If more guys can come, if the date is changed, we can do that. But postponement is always ineffective in a public gathering and the enthu goes down over time.

I wanted to avoid Diwali week end since many guys will be travelling homeward. I personally do not have an issue on 6th or 7th Nov at Chennai.Even afterwards, Saturday night or Sunday afternoon or evening after 6th nov is also ok.

Please confirm which date is convenient to all.

Kannan

though I am in Chennai & wish to attend I cannot make it up...due to heavy personal commitments..ooops.

Please intiate for a garbage free clean green chennai. Most of the places stinks. Drains can be cleaned and fenced so that people refrain from throwing garbages & it is safe especially during rains when drains over flow.
When entering chennai by train..north madras sights are eye sore..everywhere drains & slums.

Also vertical development of Chennai.

Hi raji7373,

Good idea but it will be even better if you suggest you can bring in your own idea on how to go about it. This way more and more members from the forum will add their ideas and will improve.

My first suggestion would be to remove Neel Metal Fanalca :ohno: with immediate effect from the contract of clearing garbage in many zones in Chennai and bring in ONYX who were doing a much superior job.

though I am in Chennai & wish to attend I cannot make it up...due to heavy personal commitments..ooops.

Please intiate for a garbage free clean green chennai. Most of the places stinks. Drains can be cleaned and fenced so that people refrain from throwing garbages & it is safe especially during rains when drains over flow.
When entering chennai by train..north madras sights are eye sore..everywhere drains & slums.

Also vertical development of Chennai.

The forum must be increasingly press savvy. We must keep regular touch with reporters and journalists of News papers from The Hindu, Times of India, Deccan Cronicle,Dhina Thandhi etc. Keeping in touch with reporters with Magazines, TV channels will also be a good idea.

The CEO of Sun Tv is a good friend of mine and I will try to use this source well.

Let me see if I can get in touch with some more reporters

Friends

Why cant we have a fund like thing on behalf of SSC Chennai ... We will contribute as much we can once in a month ... And we will identify any one minimal problem and try to resolve it using that money (with corp. consent)

For eg. Developing and maintaing a small roadside garden
Or Repairing old bus stops
Preparing Route display boards for couple of stops

Can we discuss here and sketch out these objectives ?

By this way , we can contribute back to our chennai ( ya i know we pay tax :D ) bt if we can take up and create small beautiful facelifts ... it will set as a example for govt and common people ..

:) Small things can make a city look different :)

Please pour in your suggestions :)

SSC Chennai Get Together:

It has been raining continuously today and Amethyst outdoor seating may not be possible. The indoor seating at Amethyst is smaller and will be crowded.

Should we change the venue to somewhere where we can stay indoors?

My choice of alternative joint is Coffee Day (excl. Ispahani centre, where seating is cramped), preferably Adyar where more space is available or coffee world (CP Ramasamy Road) or any other similar place.

As the last choice, we can have the meeting at our office conference room. The space is not a problem, but limited resources for refreshments and short eats (Saturday evening

though I am in Chennai & wish to attend I cannot make it up...due to heavy personal commitments..ooops.

Please intiate for a garbage free clean green chennai. Most of the places stinks. Drains can be cleaned and fenced so that people refrain from throwing garbages & it is safe especially during rains when drains over flow.
When entering chennai by train..north madras sights are eye sore..everywhere drains & slums.

Also vertical development of Chennai.


I blame the absolute lack of basic civic sense on the people of Chennai and not on the Govt. and any company like fanalca etc., for the dirty conditions of the streets. Small shop owners throw garbage onto the streets , street vendors throw rotten foodstuffs too and guys urinate everywhere they can. The main road in my locality was repaved and cleaned by the Corp. recently but within two days things were back to 'normal' with garbage, construction material like sand etc., and other debris strewn around. There has to be a concerted effort by all citizens to maintain cleanliness and even though i have heard public service messages over the radio re: spitting, urinating et al i have not seen any benefit. The street i live in is a oneway and most of the time it is the educated middle class owner drivers who violate the rule even with a 'one way' sign posted and a police car stationed at a corner. I once asked a policeman why he allowed these violators to continue driving and he replied that they threaten him,talk big and just continue driving. These are well off educated middle aged and elderly so-called respectable people who behave like this. Drivers are more considerate of others and follow the one way rule more than the so-called educated and well off residents. As one scandal after another breaks in this country involving the upper classes and influential i'm not surprised at all by this kind of behaviour. There is a designated area for garbage collection in the street i reside yet garbage is strewn everywhere and the company that collects garbage has tried in vain to get people to cooperate in this regard. Save for a small minority that tries to follow rules and keep the street clean the majority doesn't care. One well off educated woman actually feeds stray dogs that are a menace to residents who walk and she manages to bribe the corporation guys who are called to take them away. If she really cares,why doesn't she keep these dogs in her apartment?. Chennai could be a beautiful city if all citizens took some care and cooperated with the authorities in cleanliness and civic sense. Instead the city is one huge public toilet and garbage dump. Shame.

Good Kannan, I really Appreciate your motive.

I will be in chennai during the christmas holidays, if you hold another meeting that time, i would surely come and join,I have read many times about Exnora contributing for good citizenship causes and keeping it cleaner.

Will it be more fruitful if we join hands with them or just communicate our ideas. I am not sure about that. but just a small suggestion

I blame the absolute lack of basic civic sense on the people of Chennai and not on the Govt. and any company like fanalca etc., for the dirty conditions of the streets. ...................................................... Chennai could be a beautiful city if all citizens took some care and cooperated with the authorities in cleanliness and civic sense. Instead the city is one huge public toilet and garbage dump. Shame.

Though Monkey1 put it very forcefully, we have to admit the the underlying fact that is Chennaiites lack civic responsibility.

We (rather Exnora of our locality in which my wife takes active participation) have been working hard to convince our neighbourhood, but only with partial success. The main argument from the non cooperating people is that "when others do not follow, why I should follow". Many take the garbage till the Finalca bin but throw it just outside. WHY? The servant maids are also the big obstacles. They fail to grasp the importance of cleanliness and casually throw the garbage near the bins. Many flush the sanitary napkins and condoms down the commode and that creates havoc in the sewerage lines. Plastic bags are another menace.

I think that it has to start from Pre KG stage at the schools so that at least the next generation does not abuse the environment.

One interesting anecdote:
In one of the colonies, people ignored the warnings and even ridiculed the exnora enthusiasts. One fine morning, sewerage lines got blocked and backflow happened. It was raining and storm water drains got clogged with garbage, threwn outside. All the flats and houses in the colony were floating with sewage and fecal matter. The next day was Diwali and it was a different Diwali for all of them.

I was told that they have reformed since then and are more responsible now.

Hi Kannan,

I clearly understand your frustration. I have had many experiences when I had tried to instill civic sense. let us be very clear that this is going to be a long haul. We cannot expect short term results. Every thing starts at home and then the schools.

I too think collaborating with the exnora would be a good idea. The founder of exnora Mr. Nirmal is my neighbour. I am very close to him.He is a busy man but I can bring him to our table if the required time is given. If the forum needs help I am ready to do the needful at any time.

Lastly this is only one part of our agenda. We have to concentrate in bringing in the infrastructure program to our city. Mr. Nirmal is very close to our mayor and the Dy cm. May be he can be the medium for us to get to the top people who makes and takes decisions.

We will sort this quickly

Though Monkey1 put it very forcefully, we have to admit the the underlying fact that is Chennaiites lack civic responsibility.

We (rather Exnora of our locality in which my wife takes active participation) have been working hard to convince our neighbourhood, but only with partial success. The main argument from the non cooperating people is that "when others do not follow, why I should follow". Many take the garbage till the Finalca bin but throw it just outside. WHY? The servant maids are also the big obstacles. They fail to grasp the importance of cleanliness and casually throw the garbage near the bins. Many flush the sanitary napkins and condoms down the commode and that creates havoc in the sewerage lines. Plastic bags are another menace.

I think that it has to start from Pre KG stage at the schools so that at least the next generation does not abuse the environment.

One interesting anecdote:
In one of the colonies, people ignored the warnings and even ridiculed the exnora enthusiasts. One fine morning, sewerage lines got blocked and backflow happened. It was raining and storm water drains got clogged with garbage, threwn outside. All the flats and houses in the colony were floating with sewage and fecal matter. The next day was Diwali and it was a different Diwali for all of them.

I was told that they have reformed since then and are more responsible now.

December is a time most of our forumers who are outside Chennai will make their annual visits. Having another meeting then would be a nice idea.

SSC Chennai Get Together:

It has been raining continuously today and Amethyst outdoor seating may not be possible. The indoor seating at Amethyst is smaller and will be crowded.

Should we change the venue to somewhere where we can stay indoors?



Since it is not raining, let us meet at AMETHYST.

Civic sense should be inculcated at the primary school level. It is very difficult to educate the grown-ups in our country.

Hi Folks,
Congrats for all and appreciations for all involved in this .

Just thinking of providing constructive ideas through this forum , now i have more hope that it will reach the concerned authorities.


In USA we have almost all government holidays on weekends , eg memorial day , thanks giving etc , they have planned it so that it falls on a weekend.

Because of this we always get continuous 3 or 4 days holidays and we can always plan for a long tour , this results in domestic tourism and economy gets boosted.

Why cant the same be implemented in India like the Republic day , Independence day , Mahatma Gandhi's birthday etc ?

This could be done with 0 rupees cost , but can result in crores of worth of tax money to government and thousands of jobs in tourism in india.

Thanks,
tn2usa

All tv stations should have a short message on various topics like civic responsibilties,hygiene,cleanliness etcetera during their mai news.
srinivasan1@hotmail.

Dear members,

I am very proud that we want to be more than armchair critics.

Like many of us I am also overseas.

We need a main contact person (representative like chairman/secretary) and a contact phone number and email.

We should form a formal association or a social club with formal members.

I am happy to pay an annual membership fee for the good work.

I shall do my best in fund raising activity for a formal association to the betterment of Chennai.

I am sure there will be many members who share my view.

All tv stations should have a short message on various topics like civic responsibilties,hygiene,cleanliness etcetera during their mai news.
srinivasan1@hotmail.

There used to be a topic or a class called 'Socially Useful Productive Work'.. where I studied. But it was far from what it implied.

We need to involve primary, middle and high-school students in civic duties... much like being drafted for the national interest. And, assign them grades on their performances. Grades that pass or fail them, not just an optional/nice-to-have citations.

Grassroots is the name of game! Forget the current generation, they/we are beyond redemption

Hi Folks,
Congrats for all and appreciations for all involved in this .

Just thinking of providing constructive ideas through this forum , now i have more hope that it will reach the concerned authorities.


In USA we have almost all government holidays on weekends , eg memorial day , thanks giving etc , they have planned it so that it falls on a weekend.

Because of this we always get continuous 3 or 4 days holidays and we can always plan for a long tour , this results in domestic tourism and economy gets boosted.

Why cant the same be implemented in India like the Republic day , Independence day , Mahatma Gandhi's birthday etc ?

This could be done with 0 rupees cost , but can result in crores of worth of tax money to government and thousands of jobs in tourism in india.

Thanks,
tn2usa

While the intentions are commendable. To the best of my knowledge they do not move July 4th. Changing Republic Day and Independance day is an obscene idea. Try to get that implemented in US and see how much patriotic they feel.

I am sure people will feel the same if you try to make Diwali or Pongal to suit your holidays as they are calculated based on astronomical info.

I will agree though that the number of official holidays can be regulated.

Secondly things that work in US need not be transplanted elsewhere and cannot be as well. (Recently I read how ridiculously folks are aping Halloween in India).

Holidays like Thanksgiving or Labor Day cannot be compared with Diwali/Pongal or for that matter even New Year's Day. Can anyone move New Year's Day holiday to suit their profit or travel ?

I do not see the comparison between India and US as far as travel is concerned.

While I whole heartedly support your intentions, I do not want to support any idea of changing National Holidays like Independance day. Instead, if you tell that these holidays should be more than symbolic, in most cases today, I would agree.

Keep thinking more creative ideas. Thats the only way we can make it more productive.

The meet on saturday was a damp squib.

Only 2 attended. One phoned.

Hail SSC Chennai.

The meet on saturday was a damp squib.

Only 2 attended. One phoned.

Hail SSC Chennai.

Sad really

We have many solutions for corruption but most of them are long term and more costly to implement

Short term fix.

Now since webcamera's have become so cheap and all the offices have internet, why cant webcamera's be installed in every government office ? Police station ?

1) We hear so many news likes rape's or sexual assaults or general assaults in police station this could be avoided.

2) No way one person can bribe or take bribe infront of camera , even if it is done elsewhere the movement gets recorded and becomes suspicious.

Believe this could be done in less than 100 crore ( less than providing 1/2 of free tvs :) )

This is fool proof solution.

^^ Wat abt power cuts!?!? :lol: never mind! :silly:

For my safety and to save some money , i am happy to go again after the power comes back :)

The meet on saturday was a damp squib.

Only 2 attended. One phoned.

Hail SSC Chennai.

Kannan sir, really it feels very bad to hear about this. I wish I was in Chennai, definitely I would have made to the meeting.

Anyhow lets not lose hope, may I request you to call for another meeting with some advance notice? I am sure our friends are still eager to meet.

The meet on saturday was a damp squib.

Only 2 attended. One phoned.

Hail SSC Chennai.

All I can say is I am appalled.

Kannan - a suggestion. When you put a date.. also have a public viewable document on the list of confirmed attendees who can add their own names. Yes and No is clear. If they say Maybe note it as No till they show up.

Based on the #s you have confirmed, you could either have plan A location or Plan B or postpone or cancel accordingly.

Since the list is viewable by all and if someone commits, they are more bound to honor.

^^ We can probably make our facebook page more active and post event notifications there.

The meet on saturday was a damp squib.

Only 2 attended. One phoned.

Hail SSC Chennai.

Mr. Kannan, while I understand your frustration at such low turnout, I'm not all that surprised. Physical meetings/gatherings of members of web forums seem very hard to coordinate.
I've seen this on another forum that I was a part of a year or so ago.

My suggestion on what (might) work:
1. Fix a very specific location and time/date and don't change it.
2. Have a guest list that people sign and provide their name, phone number & email
3. A few days before the event, send out an email confirming time, location and attendance.
4. Call attendees on the day before the event and on the day of the event.

Again, I stress that this speculation on my part. The problem is that people are a bit flaky about attending meetings like this - I know I've said 'Yes, I'll definitely be there,' to something like this in the past, only to back out at the last minute.

I'm really sorry that this didn't work out, but hopefully in the future...

Mr. Kannan, while I understand your frustration at such low turnout, I'm not all that surprised. Physical meetings/gatherings of members of web forums seem very hard to coordinate.
I've seen this on another forum that I was a part of a year or so ago.

My suggestion on what (might) work:
1. Fix a very specific location and time/date and don't change it.
2. Have a guest list that people sign and provide their name, phone number & email
3. A few days before the event, send out an email confirming time, location and attendance.
4. Call attendees on the day before the event and on the day of the event.

Again, I stress that this speculation on my part. The problem is that people are a bit flaky about attending meetings like this - I know I've said 'Yes, I'll definitely be there,' to something like this in the past, only to back out at the last minute.

I'm really sorry that this didn't work out, but hopefully in the future...

Kannan sir ,

Feeling Sorry about the last meeting ... Let us have the above procedure from next time .. we will help u in coordination of above mentioned points ...

And i wil attend if am in chennai :)

Super Power India , Idea 3

UID of india is preparing india for the future. Few additions to it can make it even powerful.

India has lot of corrupt politicians , this is because of our costly election process where every candidate has to spend in lakhs and crores
to get and win a seat. He inturn gets the money back through corruption.

To make the election process less costly.

UID can collect email ids on voluntary basis and will be shared with the candidates with email addresses belong to each constituency and the candidates
can email people directly.

For e.g while collecting info for UID , it can also have couple of additional pages for the below.

Voluntary checklist 1 ( No money generating -> but useful for government purposes)

I wish to receive election campaigns as emails.
I wish to receive government policy changes as emails.

Voluntary checklist 2 ( Money generating -> retailers will be happy to get the email ids and give a price for that , the same money can be shared to the UID owners)

I wish to receive email updates on retail offers.

a) reliance b) tata c) xyz

I wish to receive email updates on cellphone offers.

a)airtel b) vodafone c)bsnl etc

Guys!

Please let me know after checking from reliable sources whether the UID card being issued in India has any embedded chip / RFID / tracing signal emitter.

We, at the Center for Development Finance, would like to introduce you to Transparent Chennai (www.transparentchennai.com), a project that empowers citizens by providing useful and easy-to-understand information about the city. The Transparent Chennai team invites you to take control over the way in which city problems are recorded and addressed. Please circulate this information through your networks and help us collect data for the website.

The Transparent Chennai team has collected data on flyovers, environmentally sensitive areas, slums and slum eviction sites, public transport, administrative boundaries and much more. Click here to play around with the ‘Build a Map’ feature. You can view information about one aspect of the city in a single layer or overlay two or more layers on top of each other to generate provocative insights into our city.

Transparent Chennai is excited to announce one of its newest initiatives – The urban waterlogging layer! Is your area affected by waterlogging and floods? We all know where waterlogging and floods happen in our own neighborhoods, monsoon after monsoon. Transparent Chennai introduces its new tool that allows residents to mark locations in the city where flood or waterlogging has taken place. By pooling this information on the map, we can create a record of places which are regularly and badly affected by floods. This new layer gives residents the chance to take control over how important city problems like waterlogging are recorded.

Mark areas of waterlogging and floods on our map!
http://www.transparentchennai.com/buildamap/floodlayer.php

Please circulate this information through your networks and help us make this participatory effort a success!


Thank you,
On behalf of TC,
Vaishnavi Narasimhan

A separate thread was created to post this. I am copy pasting this here so that this information is not lost if mods delete the original thread. Please contribute.

I feel the name of the thread can be changed to "SSC Chennai - Citizen initiatives and related news". Anything worthwhile done by any of our members can be posted here. It necessarily need not be in the news. I think that would be better.

Guys!

Please let me know after checking from reliable sources whether the UID card being issued in India has any embedded chip / RFID / tracing signal emitter.

UID is only a number with biometric information that will be stored in a database. The 'card' is symbolic. Even if you lose your 'card' it won't matter.

Dear Kannan Infratech sir,
I am very glad to have you as my friend in SSC..A wonderful job you've done and I am much happy and excited on seeing article abt our SSC forum and your photos in THE HINDU.
I can feel how difficult is the work you'd actually done..Bcs I still remember your advice and ideas when I tried to organise a Meet & form an organisation for SSC-Madurai.. Our first meet went just as a get-together as many friends found no leave on the day..I wonder why people who spend much time in posting news here are not supporting any cause if we make a platform for it..I will be happy if you help us in making the same revolution in Madurai medias..I am trying for the same bt will be happy if we get the help from senior-friends like you.

Dear Kannan Infratech sir,
I am very glad to have you as my friend in SSC..A wonderful job you've done and I am much happy and excited on seeing article abt our SSC forum and your photos in THE HINDU.
I can feel how difficult is the work you'd actually done..Bcs I still remember your advice and ideas when I tried to organise a Meet & form an organisation for SSC-Madurai.. Our first meet went just as a get-together as many friends found no leave on the day..I wonder why people who spend much time in posting news here are not supporting any cause if we make a platform for it..I will be happy if you help us in making the same revolution in Madurai medias..I am trying for the same bt will be happy if we get the help from senior-friends like you.

As a tribe, most of us are very good in commenting / analysing / suggesting. Only those guys with passion for social work can really get down on the street and work.

We can not blame anybody for this as we have been brought up like that in this society. Actually, most of do not know what to do even though we wish to do some thing.

Easiest thing to do is to do some thing for your neighbourhood first (like Exnora). We will be more committed as we are also stakeholders here.

If you are able to assemble a group of passionate people, then you may expand for bigger areas say a locality like Anna Nagar / KK Nagar / Chokkikulam.

Wrt to Industrial development / Policy decisions, it is better to join CII / FICCI or similar and work along with the stalwarts. CII has an Infrastructure Wing. The TN Chapter is headed by MARG GRK Reddy.

Publicity will follow soon.

After conducting the meet and seeing the response, I ve decided not to waste time on this and join some established bodies like CII to continue our work..

I am happy that you too suggest the same here..

Already a couple of my friends joined CII and I will follow them as a third person shortly.. I agree that we cant blame anybody. Bcs everyone has their own problems to solve first..

Manivannan IAS relays his office activities live through internet with CCTV hooked to a website- Thanks and hats off to you sir. Will others follow ?

http://ibnlive.in.com//videos/142465/blore-officer-hooks-cctv-to-official-website.html

^^ Hats off to him! :master:

^^ More about him.

http://gcoffee.blogspot.com/2009/10/manivannan-ias-interview.html

He has a reputation for being a taskmaster. But that, and a touch of humility, have allowed Mysore deputy commissioner P Manivannan to earn the respect he commands
H M Aravind | TNN


Last May in Mysore, during the assembly elections, there was someone the politicians feared more than even the voter: P Manivannan, the deputy commissioner of the district. Marshalling a phalanx of men and machinery — 12 control rooms, 130 mobile stations and 20,000 people — the heat he turned on erring netas was much hotter than that of the peak summer sun.


In the two months leading up to elections, he slapped case after case against violators of the code of conduct, seized Rs 1.25 crore in cash and generally ensured that malpractices were checked.

His writ cut across party lines. Manivannan acted against both H D Deve Gowda and B S Yeddyurappa, seizing vehicles plying without permission. Another time, when on night beat, he heard that a BJP supporter had been caught with wads of currency notes. He rushed to the spot and affixed his signature to be a witness in the case, something unheard of till then. The 1998 batch IAS officer modestly refuses to take credit for the poll success. “It is team work,” he asserts. :cheers::cheers::cheers:

Manivannan has a fabulous back story. His father Ponnaiah — a strict disciplinarian — was the first to be educated in his family. Says the son, “Some among Dalit communities in southern Tamil Madu still own land and my father was one such. He went to school but was not allowed to attend college.” An enraged Ponnaiah left the village, settled in Madurai and joined the Indian Railways and resolved his kids would do what he couldn’t. Of his five sons, three became engineers and two doctors.

Ponnaiah spent 50 per cent of his salary on books, ‘our window to the world’. The day he got his salary, he used to take kids shopping for books and in the process built a library of 60,000 books. Manivannan grew up reading these books at home in Srirangam. There was a timetable at home too. A topper, he opted for chemical engineering as he wanted to be a missile scientist. Some time into the course at Regional Engineering College, Trichy, he figured that it had nothing to do with propellant technology! His avid interest in defence technologies made him look at NDA and DRDO. Fortuitously, he fell ill, which, he believes, ‘is the turning point in my life’.

He started work with a Chennai-based group and in 1994 accepted a SAIL offer to go to Bokaro because ‘I had never gone outside Tamil Nadu’. His days at Bokaro made him think about the civil services ‘because to change something you got to be at the top’. Though he was offered his parent state, he opted for the common roster and came to Karnataka. Reason? “I felt in my parent state, I can never be neutral.” :cheers::cheers:

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^^ Good to hear, but why exactly are we talking about him in this thread?

Anyhow kudos to him..!!

Though he was offered his parent state, he opted for the common roster and came to Karnataka. Reason? “I felt in my parent state, I can never be neutral.”[/B] :cheers::cheers:

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Is TN like India? The residents like to get out and prefer to stay out and do lot better outside than within. :)

^^ Yes. TN is in India and we are all Indians and behave the same in this. :D

SSC Chennai Get Together:

It has been raining continuously today and Amethyst outdoor seating may not be possible. The indoor seating at Amethyst is smaller and will be crowded.

Should we change the venue to somewhere where we can stay indoors?

My choice of alternative joint is Coffee Day (excl. Ispahani centre, where seating is cramped), preferably Adyar where more space is available or coffee world (CP Ramasamy Road) or any other similar place.

As the last choice, we can have the meeting at our office conference room. The space is not a problem, but limited resources for refreshments and short eats (Saturday evening

Is this the thread for meeting planning etc?

^^ ayayo theriyama .. oru thani thread potuten vinoth ... :)

^^ ayayo theriyama .. oru thani thread potuten vinoth ... :)

Freeya Vudunga

Unga mittai kalar poter a parththavadhu varangalannu pakkalam.

Andha thread a mattum use pannalam

(Adhu Ramarajan idea va ? :lol:)