Bangalore Discussions

[IchimaruGin1]

Originally Posted by SBC-YPR

What kind of breakdown are you looking for?

like manufacturing services IT sector. what % of the city they make

[barrykul]

I am glad to see power cuts down to 1 hr after mentioning this in the forum. Maybe someone important is reading this forum and acting quickly! (I highly doubt it).

Here is another problem that people in Bluru face. I know that corruption is everywhere but this is the most blatant and annoying. People who want to pay their house tax are harassed by the officials at the office to pay them a fee (Rs 500+) for filling in the form. The forms are not available freely for anyone to pick up, instead they are tucked away behind almirahs/cupboards of these officials. The forms are official gobbledygook as usual.

Paying routine stuff like house tax, water bills, electricity should be highly automated and easy for anyone. They should be able to pay this at a local post office if need be. The K Govt needs to improve the admin portion of interface with public since these directly impact public perception. Being in the IT heartland, automation is the key and this gets rid of petty corruption at the grass roots level. Many of the routine things done in India are still at archaic, outmoded practices. The Govt is yet to embrace full IT for all its administrative offices. There are dog eared folders rotting in cupboards.

The Central Govt is even more retro. Try visiting any of these offices like Central Govt Pension office. We have people strolling along sipping tea, gossiping, there is one room where there is access to some computer, the rest are tucked behind ancient steel desks and cupboards. When you approach them and ask a question, they are annoyed and irritated. Then they give you a long yarn of a tale saying you have to fill this form and that, get some stamped paper, bring proof in triplicate and so on. Boy do they wear you down immediately. The whole atmosphere is charged and not relaxing. I wonder how they get any work done in these offices. The whole set of people can be replaced with a computer terminal that anyone can approach and interact. Time for the Govt to embrace modern IT and good riddance to the bandicoots who infest the Govt. I am sure they have powerful unions which you have to deal with.

[sudheeshnairs]

Originally Posted by barrykul

Paying routine stuff like house tax, water bills, electricity should be highly automated and easy for anyone.

Hope you are aware of BANGALORE ONE. I have been paying my utility bills from there, and some counters are open 24hours. I used to pay electricity bills at the Bangalore One centre in BESCOM office at HAL, Old Airport Road during nights. I am also told that you can pay BESCOM bills online too.

[sudheeshnairs]

Originally Posted by engineer.akash

Mysore is better in that sense,they are also glowing Mysore palace fitted with 1 Lakh bulbs

Power Cuts are through out the state and Bangalore is better off when compared with other cities.

An article from Times Of India

[sudheeshnairs]

Originally Posted by SBC-YPR

Power cuts have reduced to 1 hour now

I knew that there was one hour cut in the morning, it used to happen between 7-9 AM. Evenings I am not sure about the cuts.

I am back to Bangalore yesterday. Today I think there was no power cut.

Meanwhile these power cuts do not have much impact on some section of society. Most offices/IT campuses have back up power, some even with their own power stations. Power disruption would be for 20 seconds, (this time UPS will give back up) and then Generator power would be automatically turned on.

Most apartment complexes would be using back up power. We have full back up at our Apartment.

[barrykul]

Originally Posted by sudheeshnairs

Hope you are aware of BANGALORE ONE. I have been paying my utility bills from there, and some counters are open 24hours. I used to pay electricity bills at the Bangalore One centre in BESCOM office at HAL, Old Airport Road during nights. I am also told that you can pay BESCOM bills online too.

Thanks Sudeesh, I checked out Bluru One and BESCOM besides phone and utility they don't have a system for House Tax Payments. I visited the office in Whitefield area sometime, don't know the current status, the office is one cess pool of corruption, with officials waiting to pounce on some unwitting customer that walks in. I had a tough time with one fellow who gave me the run around and I started increasing my tone and asking for his supervisor, etc. He slunk away for tea and never appeared for the next 1 hr.

Tis time for a complete revamp of the K Govt offices and imposing stricter rules and regulation. Most of the chaps don't turn into office on time they are gone for the most part of the day on some errand or other. The forms are all secretive and there is no clear instructions for anyone to follow. These bureaucracies all the old hangover from the Brits worsened by the corrupt Neta/Babu over time.

I think tis time for complete reboot. Govt departments are pitholes that do not serve their purpose, every one of them including the Judiciary. The malaise is deep and the officials are smug in the belief of life time employment with cushy pensions.

Two things that need reform: Judicial and Govt Administration. These are holy cows that need the axe plain and simple. Both of them drag the economy.

[shekar]

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/re...nataka_1355450

[slakhs]

Even Property Tax could be paid online since last year, it worked with some minor hiccups. Before that, I had to pay only Rs 30 for the person filling form (in Mahadevpura office), maybe you got the wrong guy. None of the owners in our apartment mentioned about such harassment either.

Originally Posted by barrykul

Thanks Sudeesh, I checked out Bluru One and BESCOM besides phone and utility they don't have a system for House Tax Payments. I visited the office in Whitefield area sometime, don't know the current status, the office is one cess pool of corruption, with officials waiting to pounce on some unwitting customer that walks in. I had a tough time with one fellow who gave me the run around and I started increasing my tone and asking for his supervisor, etc. He slunk away for tea and never appeared for the next 1 hr.

Tis time for a complete revamp of the K Govt offices and imposing stricter rules and regulation. Most of the chaps don't turn into office on time they are gone for the most part of the day on some errand or other. The forms are all secretive and there is no clear instructions for anyone to follow. These bureaucracies all the old hangover from the Brits worsened by the corrupt Neta/Babu over time.

I think tis time for complete reboot. Govt departments are pitholes that do not serve their purpose, every one of them including the Judiciary. The malaise is deep and the officials are smug in the belief of life time employment with cushy pensions.

Two things that need reform: Judicial and Govt Administration. These are holy cows that need the axe plain and simple. Both of them drag the economy.

[thewanderer]

I checked out Bluru One and BESCOM besides phone and utility they don't have a system for House Tax Payments

...There is, and has been for a while now, I guess. This year, we paid ours online.

[Nelaturi]

Bangalore One

http://www.bangaloreone.gov.in/public/default.aspx

Needs a simple registration process to start using. Very useful. check out the link above to go to the home page.

Payment services are available for following utilities:
BangaloreOne Services

1. BWSSB - Payment of Water Bill
2. BESCOM - Payment of Electricity Bills
3. Tata Tele Service Bill Payments
4. CellOne Payment of Bills
5. Spice Payment of Postpaid Bills
6. BSNL - Payment of Landline Bill
7. TRAFFIC VIOLATION FINE PAYMENT
8.PARKING FINE COLLECTIONS
9. View Payment History
10. Renewal of ING Life Insurance Policy
11. Airtel LandLine Bill Payments
12.Vodafone Postpaid Bill Payments
13.CALAMITY RELIEF FUND OF KARNATAKA

Property Tax can be paid from BBMP site: http://www.bbmp.gov.in/

[barrykul]

Thanks guys for the information. I need to do more due diligence. Most people (old folks) in Bluru pay the old fashion way, maybe some Public Relations for BluruOne is needed. I believe that these K Govt offices need to be shaken up and improved. Public corruption is eating the core of the economy and this is insidious. Everyone needs to say enough is enough and take a stand against corruption.

[SBC-YPR]

B-One is quite popular already, in the areas where it exists. I have seen large numbers of people using the Old Airport Road, Indiranagar, JP Nagar and Kengeri centres for bill payment, passport application etc. I have used the service myself and found it quite convenient. Negligible queues due to a large number of counters and efficient, friendly staff

What is now required is an increase in the number of B-One centres. There was some proposal to open another 40 centres in addition to the existing 20-odd but nothing seems to have happened

Online property tax payment could use more PR. Last year BBMP put out ads in the newspapers but I guess it wasn't sufficient. Popularising this mode itself will eliminate much corruption.

[shekar]

http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/10/stor...1061240300.htm

[Mahesh Nanjunda]

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/...iveable-5.html

The rival political parties and candidates fighting Sunday’s Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) poll, who promise adequate water supply to Bangaloreans, may be totally unaware of the alarming ground reality.

The fact perhaps may be that there would not be much water left in the city by the time the incoming BBMP corporators complete their five-year term. In yet another alarming projection of the city’s water situation, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore have predicted that the already depleted water resources of the city could dry up within the next five years.

Increasing built-up area, rising temperature, rapidly depleting greenery and over-exploitation of ground water are threatening to render the city dry and dead, according to a recent study by IISc’s Energy and Wetland Group at the Centre for Ecological Sciences.

“Soon we will be facing severe water crisis. Not much is spoken about conserving water resources — both ground water and surface water. Wetlands are being encroached upon. So is the greenery, creating heat islands in many parts of the city,” said IISc scientist Dr T V Ramachandra.

Ecological degradation

Between 1973 and 2006, the city’s ecological degradation was 66 percent. That is huge. But gathering pace, in the last two years (between 2007 and 2009), the city’s vegetation cover fell alarmingly from 28 per cent to 16 per cent — from 19, 696 hectares it has dwindled to just 11,153 hectares area within a short span of time,” the scientist explained.

Even more alarming is the fact that the area covered by water bodies has reduced by about 489 hectares within two years, that too when the state government claims that preserving water bodies is its top priority.

The study also reveals that the built-up area in the city has shot up by 632 per cent in just two years. “The built-up area in the city between 1973 and 2006 was 466 per cent. It has increased by 166 percentage points to move up to 632 per cent.

It is one of the causes for city’s rising temperature,” he said.

Increasing built-up area and change in the land use pattern have left little room for percolation of water for recharge. The city planners neither have any measures in mind nor any programmes in place for ground water recharge. “We are fast heading towards a disaster,” Dr Ramachandra said.

Most parts of the city are already dependent of ground water which has been recklessly over-exploited. Some urgent steps may help avert the disaster in the immediate future. Authorities concerned should stop permitting any more industry in the city and ensure that at least in new BBMP areas, 30 per cent of the space is left as open area, the scientist says.

[engineer.akash]

Heard its raining in Bengaluru and breeze is chill.....................

I am in Madras and am getting mad,its horrible here and I still have to face the hottest season of the year


I am jealous of you guys.........................

Plzzzzz rain god.........pour down some in Madras as well...................

[sudheeshnairs]

Yesterday the maximum day temperature was 25 degrees.

Rain happened on previous night, and during day there was no rain, but it was pleasant like winter..

There was rain in Kerala coast last week. I had done the lintel concrete of the ground floor of villa in Trivandrum and voila, here comes rain the next day, so curing is mostly taken care by rain god

I have noticed Bangalore gets rain whenever there is summer rain in Malabar coast. The Western Ghats are responsible for this. During summer the water vapour from the sea forms clouds and they travel north east. Then our westen ghats stops it in the form of rains (It cannot get in to Tamil Nadu, being in the rain shadow region.) As it goes northwards, the height of the ghats comes down from about 2000m to 1000m (parts of plateau including wayanad, mysore and Bangalore) and those rain clouds get in to the south karnataka region and bring rains.

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Bangalore: If you get a notice slapping heavy fine for committing any traffic-related offence, check the traffic police website before pleading innocence. Your violation would have been videographed and posted on the Bangalore traffic police website.

The Bangalore City Traffic police’s initiative of posting video clippings of traffic violations was likely to silence the violators’ argument that they had not committed the offence, but was falsely implicated and levied a hefty fine.

Currently, about 50% of traffic offenders deny committing any offence. The new system, however, would provide video evidence of the violation, thus helping the police to counter the argument.

The traffic police, however, made it clear that the initiative was not to create fear about evidence but to make violators realise that they had committed an offence and they should not become habitual offenders. The video clipping of the offence would be uploaded on to the website, www.bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in.

“This (initiative) is called video evidence management system, and it has been introduced two months ago. This is for traffic violations, which has been captured by the surveillance cameras and interceptors at various junctions across the city. Out of all the offences booked, 90% of them are booked on the field, and spot fines collected or notices issued. The rest are booked after they are spotted by the surveillance cameras and the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) recorded it,” additional commissioner of police (traffic) Praveen Sood said.

Explaining the facility, Sood said that TMC would save the video evidence whenever a case was booked. “The notices issued will be delivered at the offender’s residential address. But, the notice will mention the video evidence. When a person logs onto the traffic police website to pay the fine online, he or she can access the video or image. The offender’s vehicle details, along with the type of offence and notice number and the fine, will be mentioned on the website, with a link to the image or video,” he said.

The image and notice would be deleted once the payment was made online. “We don’t want people to get a notion that we are enforcing something here. It is just a method of indirectly reducing the number of repeated offenders,” the officer said.

Sood said that the notice would be deleted within 24 hours of remitting the fine amount. “The reconciliation at BangaloreOne centers is done at midnight. The misconception among people is that they still have an offence charged against them when they have already paid the fine. The online payment service has been offered since one year and at least 30% to 40% of the offenders make payments online,” he added.

However, online payment facility excluded certain offences.

"A motorist caught on the spot by a policeman cannot opt for online payment. But offences such as parking violation, signal jumping, rash and negligent riding, overspeeding, riding without helmet and using mobile phones that are recorded by surveillance cameras fall under the category of online payment,” he said.

Of the 5,19,419 cases booked for various traffic rule violations till February this year, 32,707 cases were booked through automation, 4,62,343 cases under Motor Vehicle Act, 1,558 cases under Karnataka Police Act and 22,811 towing cases. The traffic police invited the public to lodge complaints if the helpline numbers listed were non-functional.

DNA

[engineer.akash]

B'loreans get new civic body Monday

Those who have not voted have not right to crib and whine on Bengaluru woes.

[engineer.akash]

Go Yeddi Go

[sudheeshnairs]

Namma Party has won.

Massive win: 112/198. Cong sidelined to 64, Gowdas bite the dust