Loksatta for cities

Being a resident of Hyderabad below are the changes I would expect If loksatta comes into Power.

 - An effective public transport system. If the public transport is strengthened, automatically traffic is reduced. If public transport is reliable and convenient, there is no reason why people will go for private transport. This in turn will reduce traffic problem and consequently reduces green house gases.

I believe that Loksatta has a political will to apply out-of-box solutions for traffic problems.

 - An approachable MLA incase of unattended issues in water problems/ road damages etc..

 - 24 hours call center to receive complaints.

- Loksatta guarantees safe water for every one. Today, we are waiting over nights expecting water and some times even upto 1′o clock in the night. I hope that atleast next government attend to it. I believe that an MLA from LSP only bothers about these livelihood problems.

- A good maintenance of roads. Only in the last two months, the roads are well maintained to attract the voters. I remember, filing an RTI petition on a road problem and it took more than one year to attend the problem. LSP guarantees a continuous maintenance of roads for full five years (Not just at the time of election !!) and an accountable authorities with in the reach of citizens to escalate.

 - Comprehensive citizen charters which should be enabling to avail services from Govt. offices with dignity. These times, whenever I visit any govt. office, the indifference with which ordinary citizens are treated makes me very disappointing. I wish this culture changes. Every authority will be accountable for his/her work with penalities for delays.

-Every ward will have it’s own elected govt. body to address the basic needs of that ward.

Why to Vote for Loksatta.. 2

In this post, I am writing about the Guarantees of Loksatta for villages. All the guarantees have been centered around day to day life problems which people find in the villages. I keep visiting my grand parents who stay in a village in Prakasam district and with least effor I can say how villages are neglected from decades together. It is taken for granted that villages will be like this only. Loksatta party announced specific and practical guarantees in its manifesto which I’m detailing below.

 (1) Adequate funds for Villages: As mentioned in the earlier post, a fund of 1000/- per head will be granted for every village. This will be under the control of local panchayat which also is accountable to the residents of that village. This can be used to develop more facilities for the common causes of that village (e.g. a community Hall, A library etc..).

(2) Guaranteed Safe driking water for every village: Whenever I go to my village I’m used to drink water from the well directly. The water lacks the taste which is found in a town near by with in 3-4 kms. Moreover, In flouride effected villages the situation is alarming. In this state of things Loksatta guarantees safe drinking water by implementing reverse osmosis plants in every village. Local youth will be trained and employed to maintain the safety standards in drinking water. Institutions will be strengthened to inspect the stadards of safety frequently. Local panchayat will be made accountable for supervise all operations and the same will be cancelled in case of failure in keeping safety standards.

(3) 24 Hour power supply: Loksatta guarantees guarantees 24 hours power supply in par with the comfort given to city/town residents. It stregthens the power distribution system and minimises the wastage of power. It makes local panchayat responsible for power distributions.

-Agriculture transformers will be separated from domestic ones and a quanlity power supply without voltage fluctuations is guaranteed. -Govt compensates if motors are burnt because of voltage fluctuations.

(4) No for public defecation: It’s a shame for us that still our people are forced to go for public defecation. For namesake, there are slogans written on walls of my village that public defecation is a social disorder. But, what people can do when it is a forced choice. Today traditional parties are busy in delivering promises like providing colour TVs but ignoring the livelihood problems of people. Loksatta realizes the Gandhiji’s dream in letter and spirit by guaranteeing a toilet and septic tank which enables people to protect their dignity and health. Local panchayat will be enabled and empowered to perform these duties. A disciplianary action will be taken against those panchayats who fail to deliver on these. It is up to us to choose which is important, a toilet or a television ?

(5) Transport facilities: Whenever I go to my village, I am completely relying on autos to commute to near by town. RTC buses completely stopped plying on to the roads of village. One can imagine how uncomfortable it is , when a seven seater auto accomodates more than 15 people at once. The way people are forced to hang to the side, and the speed/reckless driving makes the travel highly unsafe. In this state of things, Loksatta announces following guarantees.

 - Guarantees a high quality weather road 

- Guarantees a bus facility by rule and ensure that it plys as per the needs of local people.

 - Free transport for students and patients. 

- Facities will be arranged for transport of agricultural goods.

When we look at the manifestos of traditional parties, There is no focus on raising the standards of livelihood. All are centered around getting votes ignoring their lives for the next five years. I strongly feel that our institutions are inadequate to protect our democracy. Why our courts/ election commission have a watch over election promises. Why it is required for someone to raise a PIL to bar some one from criminal background to contest in elections. (I’m talking about Dr.sandeep pandey’s PIL against sanjay dutt’s candidature). Now how many PILs should be submitted to stop every criminal to contest.

Are We Citizens, Beggars ??

The title of this post must have indicated the level of frustration I’m having now. Though I am admit that I’m quite emotional I try to justify with reason what made me feel so. This frustration is the result of my woes to get a voter ID. Though I applied long time back, I fear I will not be able to vote this time. There is no confidence I’m getting from the incharges that I’ll get a chance to vote this time.

I applied to voter id 8 months back but did not get any response on it. I called the concerned incharge many times in between but never I got a specific response to my application. Since this is last week for getting enrolled, I went to Khairatabad office to check. Here is the sequence of things happened

(1) Saturday I went there and to my surprise I find a helpdesk. I explained my problem to a lady and she decently guided me to check with few officials in the first floor.
(2) I went up and looked for name of the person I’m supposed to meet. There is no indication of who is meant for what. There are few people who are holding form6, so I thought that He is the right person. I waited for about 10 minutes expecting him to hear me. I was not able to understand whether he could not hear or do not care to hear. Ignoring me standing before him he left his seat saying that It is not his job. It took 10 minutes for him to say that.
(3) Later I was able to find the incharge and requested him to help me. He suggested me ( As if he has done some favor but not as duty) to go to one room and check my name in the latest rolls. When I tried to enter that room one assistant shouted at me on why I’m entering that room. I showed my finger to official and then she allowed me to get in as if she is showing some mercy.
(4) After entering the room another official yelled at me why I’m here, As if it is a secure zone of RBI. Keeping the frustration inside, I told the whole story again. Then he told that authorities will come to locality tomorrow though it is a Sunday. Wasting a good 2-3 hours I left the place.

(5) Sunday, I checked in the community hall of our locality and did not find any authorities. I called up call center 1100 which took 3-4 full rings for some once to pick up the call. They confirmed that my name is not entered in the rolls yet. She suggested me to apply again in the Khairatabad office.
(6) Holding my patience, I again went all the way to Khairatabad and found someone to shout at me that it ’s a holiday and it’s my stupidity to expect that it will be open. I asked why few people are inside if it’s not working day. He warned me not to ask to many questions and out of me pleading too much, he said they came to do some election work but not to receive applications.
(7) One assistant came to me and suggested me to come tomorrow and give bribe to some one who will issue the card immediately.

What else can be more shameful than this to bribe to exercise our vote in our so-called vibrant democracy.

The experiences may not have been very different for any one in any Govt. office. What I understood is that they know more about what is not their job than what is their job. There is no accountability in their roles. They take citizen’s time and patience for granted. A very unconcerned attitude have been rooted in the mindsets as if they show a mercy on people by performing their duties and a citizen can not get the things which he/she rightfully deserves without bribing or begging. Voter enrollment process should not be too cumbersome if there is a well planned process with some one accountable at every stage of application. It only requires a will and commitment from election commission. The typical indifference, incompetence, irritation, domination and disrespect which they show made me feel like this.
( Apologies if this hurts any one but this is a kind of experience I faced in many Govt. offices)

Why to vote for Loksatta .. 1

 

As elections are near by, I wanted to my bit to speard ideals of Loksatta to a wider reach. As a part of that, I am writing about the 50 guarantees put forward by Loksatta in a staggered manner. In this post, I am writing about guarantees about Local governance and what changes it can bring to a citizen.

Today’s system of governance lost its credibility with public. There is no Govt office where once can hope to be received with courtesy and respect. It’s a wonder if one can finish their tasks in their first visit without paying any bribe or without any friend/relative in office. The basic flaw is that the power and accountability are not at the same place. For e.g. If it is municipality authorities who is accountable for laying of roads, the funds would be under the control of state. This kind of logical separation between power and accountability is what breeding corruption, incompetence and consequently indifferene to citizen’s needs and concerns. In this kind of circumstances, following are the changes propounded by Loksatta.

Formation of district governments: One of the main guarantee of Loksatta party is the formation of district governments. People would directly participate and elect the governing board for district (similar to a state government with chief minister, ministers etc.. ) which will be empowered and responsible for all citizen welfare activities such as education, health, civic amenities, employement creation, social security for poor etc.. . The funds required for these would be transferred directly to district governments from state government by rule.

Enabling Local Govts with decision making power: Local governemnts would completely be isolated from the clutches of state control. It would be enabled to take it’s own decisions as per the specific needs and concerns of that area independent of others. This kind of freedom makes the authorities accountable for local issues and they neither need to wait for instructions from top nor escape from the responsibilities. Consequently there system will become more efficient and less corrupted.

Substantial funds for district governments: 50% of state planning fund will be directly transferred to district govts by rule. From the districts it would be distributed to local govts for various sectors. In addition to this, an additional fund of 1000/- per head ( Fund would be decided the population of that area) would be released under the authority of that local government.

Public participation in governance: All leaders of crucial wings of governance like education, health, water distribution, market yards etc.. Will be elected by people directly. Every ward will have it’s representative elected by people and empowered by local government. All rules, instructions, policy decisions, files would be maintained in telugu. This empowers every citizen to own governance and question the immediate authority incase of any suspicion of corruption/ unreasonable priorities/ unnoticed problems in that locality.

The essence of this kind of local governance is the transparency with which Govt. functions and consequence reduction in corruption. When I talk to few of my friends about loksatta, One question raised is How can one hope for moral individuals all the time. My answer is that we can not expect moral candidates but It is the policies than people which can eradicate corruption. One such efficient step in that direction is Local governance!

Lessons From London

For the past three and half months I stayed in London and this post is a consolidation of few things which I appreciate there and we can possibly emulate. This is neither out of any fascination for western world nor out of pessimistic syndrome (that we are like this only!!) but few simple and effective practices I have observed there.

Pedestrian Dignity:

 

One day I was walking on road and like a stupid, I tried to cross the road when there was a red signal (Out of my habits here). The vehicle driver stopped the car in the middle of road and gave me way with a beautiful smile. I was quite overwhelmed by the concern he has shown. I witnessed many such other occurrences which exemplify the courtesy and respect for pedestrians. Like Gandhi says, In any healthy society the person with least privileges should be accommodated.

The point I want to make here is that there should be provisions which make the life of a pedestrian easy. Never a day, I was able to walk in a busy road without some one throwing a horn at me ( Most of the times, for no reason. Just to vent their frustration ). Below are few actions which I recommend to enable pedestrian walk with dignity.

(1) To make it mandatory for the construction of footpaths ( Big enough that car holders and bikers can not get on to them!! ) and make it compulsory to develop foot paths on construction of new roads. Any vehicle driver plying on footpaths should be punishable.

(2) In the traffic signals, another signal should be added which gives the right for pedestrian to use the road 100%.

(3) In the traffic awareness programs, make it obligatory to cooperate and enable for young kids and senior citizens to cross the roads. This should develop a new culture of belongingness ( In the way there are few seats left out for Ladies and senior citizens in city busses).

(4) In the traffic awareness programs, educate people to use horn judiciously. If one observes little consciously, most of the times horn was used unwarrantedly on Hyderabad roads.

Utilization of Public transport:

 

Today, people are relying on public transport more by force and less by choice. If we make public transport hassle free and give a confidence to commuter that he will reach a given place in stipulated time then there is no reason why a commuter chooses other options. This helps the society in many ways.

(1) One interesting thing I observed is that there is one track dedicated for public transport (Buses and cabs). This can not be practiced on all roots but at least if there is a long route (for e.g. Hyderabad central to Secunderabad Patny center) dedicate few feet road which is enough for city buses to ply. Increase the number of buses to accommodate the increase in number of people.

(2) More the people opt for public transport Less will be the petty accidents happening on roads.

Greening Initiatives:

 

There are few simple practices to combat the crisis of climate change.

(1) As mentioned earlier make public transport attractive and consequently the number of bikes and cars plying on roads will reduce. This will contribute to the reduction of green house gas emitions.

(2) Arrange bins for putting recycle material (Say plastic covers, disposable glasses etc..) on roads for every one Km.

The same material can be reused rather than being reproduced.

(3) Develop a competition among shops and malls to contribute for the green cause. This can be quantified in things like how much percentage of the covers are being recycled. This can be innovative like keeping a minimal price to give a bag for things we buy. Give incentives for these shops who contribute for more recycling.

Please share your opinions on above post.

Why should I Vote?

31^st day of August and July are two special days in recent past. The former is the last day for filing IT returns and the later is the last day for enrolling our names into electoral rolls. I am a part of last minute rush in both instances and I can say with least effort that the later has much less demand than the former especially among educated people.  I hope I don’t need any statistics to make this certain. The IT returns caught the headlines almost all national news papers while the later got a small box in a corner page in district edition. The paradox is that we are convinced to pay our taxes on time but are least interested to bother about how effectively they are spent.  Another thing which caught my attention is that so many daily workers, old people and people who are not so educated are more willing to see their names in electoral rolls than those people who are educated and have an intellectual capacity to assess the kind of leader our society needs.  This brings to us the fundamental question ‘Why should I vote’?

This may be a very obvious question for a socially conscientious citizen but for others it is worth asking this question and more worth finding the answers. A vote is our gateway to democracy failing which we lose our moral right to complain against the system.  A Vote is our Voice To Elect right people to rule us and make our lives better and enable our society to prosper. It is our moral responsibility to spend some time analyzing the commitments of netas and babus of all parties and make a fair analysis which is better for us and for our future generations. The appalling trend is that the people who have a capacity to do a fair judgment stay out of system by failing to vote. Rest of the people fall prey to election gimmicks and enable criminals and robbers to rule us.  The meager 37% of polling in Khairatabad constituency in recent by-elections is an indication of how disinterested the people are with their leaders. It does not need too much of analysis to understand how many of those 37% have actually voted out of careful deliberations. We must realize that similar to the way our Vote contributes for a leader to gain power, our absence will have its dent in allowing a criminal to sit on our head.

There is no surprise in the fact that current state of politics discourages an individual to participate in voting.  Most of educated people are caught up with a disillusion that nothing is going to change the system. This disbelief further weakens our system and we should proactively respond to the challenges. If there are not many choices to vote for then create more choices, definitely not excuses. Today’s silence will force us to be silent while situation goes out of hands.

While so many people of various countries in the world are struggling for the right to vote we are constantly  failing to realize the potential of vote and allowing for  further weakening of the system.  One may think that the power of a single vote may be too insignificant. It may just be a drop in an ocean but ocean is nothing without those little drops!! Let us exercise our right to vote without fail and allow our democracy to flourish. This is definitely not our schools and colleges teach us.

INSPIRATION: Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, Loksatta Party.

Shame on Governance !!

yesterday’s events of arresting Andhrajyothi’s editor put me under great dismay and frustration. I felt helpless seeing the utter injustice happening which was broadcasted live in tv channels. I don’t know how many of us felt the same, but i believe that if your blood boiled watching it we all are on the right track. For the rest of us, it’s another TV Show.Unfortunately we all are forced to become ignorant of some thing which we know by our commonsense. There is no better evidence than this that politics is a merely power game and people’s interest became least priority.

Burning effigies is an established practice in India to show their protest towards anyone. I don’t think the dharna done by Andhrajyothi journalists is beyond that. If it is treated as a damage to the dignity of one leader and in turn to the community it’s a shame on the authorities interpreting this act. I am at complete loss to understand where is ‘Atrocity’ in it. If at all there is an atrocity, it is on the ‘democracy’ which we all feel proud of. How many years does our system took to deliver justice on massive killing of dalits in chunduru ? I hope that our courts will judge fairly and provide a guideline on interpretation of this act and admonish the people exploiting their power under the guise of this act.

SC/ST atrocity act is basically to help social inclusion of Dalits. I would be happy and contented if some one educates me how this particular example helps in serving that purpose. Below is some info extracted from wikipedia about sad state of affairs relating to this act.

“Justice Ramaswamy observed in the case of State of Karnataka v. Ingale[1] that more than seventy-five percent of cases brought under the SC/ST Act end in acquittal at all levels. The situation has not improved much over the last decade. According to the figures given by the 2002 Annual Report dealing with SC/ST Act (of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment) is supports this view. According to which of the total cases filed in 2002 only 21.72% of the total cases were disposed off and out of the disposed cases, a mere 2.31% ended up in conviction. The number of acquittals is 6 times more than the number of convictions and more than 70 percent cases are still pending “

 

Simple Thoughts – A Magazine to make a difference

Dear Fellow Bloggers,

 

This post is to introduce a magazine called ‘Simple Thoughts’ started by few IT engineers in last month. The objective is to materialize various creative solutions for the problems in the society.

 

Most of us have so many ideas in our mind to solve the problems in society and most of those ideas stop at that point itself. We wait for the chance to do it. Even if we get that chance by chance we don’t have time to do it in our hectic IT Career. With this thought in mind , ‘Simple thoughts team’ came up with a magazine to make platform for those ideas and give a form to the ideas and implement them with the volunteers team.

 

Why IT:

Most of the Intellectual capital in india lies in IT and it’s enabled services serving MNCs.  Can’t we provide solutions for day to day problems we are witnessing in our life which impact us and our future generations. Most of us must be feeling that we are not part of the decision makers of the policies impacting us. We should start investing our time towards betterment of society and have a watch on what direction we are moving?

 

Plans are lied on to involve Professional colleges in a great sclae to tap the potential of youth.

 

Three ways to support this initiative.

 

(1)   Write articles/ Provide Ideas to Simple thoughts Magazine. (Ideas are more important than Presentation).

(2)   Join Simple thoughts volunteers team and be a part of Solutions.

(3)   Subscribe to Simple thoughts magazine.

 

I am looking for your support more in providing Ideas as you all are basically bloggers. I am eagerly looking for a positive reply. Let us know if you would like to have a demo copy. Thank you

Youth And Politics

With my association to ideals of Loksatta Party in recent times, I can sense a great need for youth and educated people to involve in politics. It’s high time we all need to put a thought on what direction our society is moving ahead. Though it looks green for a minor section of people, it’s pretty unlivable for most of our people in the society.

Loksatta helped me a great deal in viewing ‘Politics’ in it’s true and holistic sense. It was made a dirty word by the way it has been practiced. Any activity which deals beyond boundaries of one’s self can be called politics. I realized how foolish it is to think of staying away and ignoring politics. we can’t imagine a single moment where there is no involvement of politics. Politics is like our breath it’s there with us everywhere and every moment. Even in the air we breathe, we have politics involved. We have a ministry and administrative bodies to govern the environment. So, We are bound to live with politics whether we like it or not. If we are not happy with current politics we have to change it but we can’t avoid it. It’s worth recollecting a quote by Gandhiji.

“If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake.”

Below are the few reasons came to my mind why youth and educated people should involve in politics.

(1) Threat to future generations.
Policy makers and politicians are not the same. At the time of our independence, we have people like Jawaharlal Nehru, valla bhai patel, Ambedkar who excelled in their own professions and also win the hearts of people with their conviction to serve the society.
Now the culture is that whoever has money and power are politicians. They are least bothered about the development of weaker sections of people. They are not bothered about raising the standards of people. The decisions which impact us are taken by whims of few individuals which otherwise should have been taken after careful deliberations.
unfortunately we are accepting this as politics. We have to change this culture otherwise it will become a dictatorship in the guise of democracy. our next generations are going to curse us if we don’t change this.

(2) The age of politicians.
If we look at the politicians of current generation most of them are around thier 50s and 60s. If there are young people they must have been sons or grand sons of another politician.
If this trend of dynastic politics doesn’t change we will have criminals and robbers ruling us which already started.

(3) Raising social inequalities.
Most of the present day political parties are born out of a narrow identity whether it is religious, geographical, caste or creed. This kind of culture is further widening the gaps between different sections of the people. We should not give chance to these kind of people to lead us. It’s still in our hands.
As Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan says one should not be called a leader when he possesses a particular identity. Gandhiji is never respected as a brahmin but an indian. Dr.Ambedkar was never respected as a dalit though he was made an icon for dalit identity. Bhagat singh is idealised for revolution and reforms but not as a sardar.

(4) Changing priorities.
Education and Health standards are the primary indicators of the health of the society. Though our GDP is growing magnificently we are stagnant in standards of education and health. This priorities should be changed. Every five years parties are coming up with populist measure to attract the attention of voters for a small time and forget the basic things which are required for them.

All the reasons cited above show us the need for change in political culture. The paradigm in which politics is viewed by students and young professionals should change. Let us all work for that. Let us all join our hands, understand and appreciate the ideologies of parties like Lok Satta.

Hyderabad Unplug- Take a Stand against Global Warming!!

If one is asked what is the major threat for Human kind, the answer is unanimously ‘Global Warming’. It’s no more a distant possibility but a close reality. It is found that last few years have been recorded as hottest years of the century. This fact itself is making it evident that we are facing the consequences of Climate change.

The recent scientific reports of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change) made it clear that climatic changes are because of human intervention into nature. Unless global initiatives are taken up it will be difficult to control the consequences of Global warming. These reports are prepared by eminent scientists across the globe with high standards and technology. The veracity of these reports is further strengthened by recent changes in climate. So, Global warming can no more be considered as an imagination of few people. It’s a hard reality which every person on the earth, collectively has to face.

So, what is the need of the hour? First of all, we have to understand and accept the individual responsibility towards the environment. Don’t we have a responsibility to keep a safe and comfortable environment for our future generations. Similar to the way we earn money and save assets for our next generations, we also have an accountability to promise a comfortable climate for them. Do we need to wait for our governments to impose rules on us? It is in our hands by colletive will to combat this devil called ‘Global Warming’. Following are few things which one practice in daily life to alleviate the effects of global warming.

· Unplug appliances on standby. They use 10% of your electricity.

· Use less water. In your generation you might not have enough drinking water left.

· Unplug your chargers once you are done using them as even though it might be switched off, it still consumes electricity.

· Say no to plastic. It takes centuries to decompose and honestly you really don’t need it.

· Car Pool, Cab Pool – think of it this way, less cars on the road, less traffic, you’ll reach faster, and you’ll have company.

To bring awareness among Hyderabad citizens about his cause, few individuals together started a project called ‘Hyderabad Unplug’ ( http://www.hyderabadunplug.com ). This aims to sensitize the public about climate change and how our little care towards the environments can make things better. As a token of support, the people of Hyderabad are requested to switch off power from 7.30 PM to 8.30 PM on May 3rd,2008. This idea is inspired from Earth hour happened in Sydney on March 29th and Mumbai Unplug run in Mumbai. As a part of campaigning road shows will be conducted where in general public will be educated with do’s and don’ts to combat global warming. With this, I request the reader to participate in ‘Hyderabad Unplug’ and make others participate by explaining the cause and purpose behind the event. Please help in making this a success, by campaigning in your appartments, locality and your workplaces. The reader can also be a contributor to the event by by voluntering for the event until May 3rd.

Let us show to the world, that Hyderabad cares for the world!!