Quota opponents cheer-IBN-30 Mar 2007

It may be too soon to cheer. Courts have the funny habit of sending out rays of hope and quashing them in the end. And Politicians have wily ways of bypassing justice and fair play.
Let us not forget the countless victims like Rajeev Goswami who immolated himself and the young boy who was shot by the police and hauled like a bleeding pig in a slaughter house. An image that is forever etched in peoples minds.

Vote bank politics is the curse of the nation.
Dinosaurian politicians like Arjun Singh and V P Singh keep the curse alive and kicking.
The perverted rationale of using seventy year old data is beyond comprehension.
When an educated intelligent vote is equal to that of the 80 percent of the country it cannot compete.
Hope the highest court in Land respects the current opinion of the majority and not that of the biased representative that managed to get to the legislature.

Should Car Owners be taxed more?-IBN28Mar2007

An empahtic NO. Instead, the owners of lakhs of vehicles and the lakhs of drivers, who do not conform to any rules or regulations, should be fined heavily and a portion of the fine amount should be allocated as necessary.The state of New Jersey instituted a fund to which all accidents contributed over a period of 3 years after the accident in 1996. Today the fund has over a BILLION DOLLARS.This in a country where civic law compliance is a holier duty than church going.The extent of such a fund in India where violations are the status symbol can only be imagined.It may even have the salutary trickle down effect of transforming the violators in to compliers.
Secretary training,
http://www.testtraffic.org/
Traffic Engineers and Safety Trainers(NGO)
Bangalore
"REACH HOME SAFE"

whats wrong with our cricket-IBN28Mar2007

The cause of disease of Indian cricket is incidentally the same for the rest of the country.Merit / ability is not the criterion of choice but other longer list of irrelevancies including politics and Influence, patronage etc.When will we ever understand nothing other than merit and ability can substitute for performance in this competetive world?We look everywhere except where it matters-in our hearts- to find the causes.

Mumbai Roadies love bending rules-IBN28Mar2007

The fines have to be increased to a penalty level to pinch. For example, using Very loud or musical horns should be fined with atleast twice the cost of the horn and immediate destruction of the illegal horn as a deterrent, as in drug enforcement.Traffic violations should automatically attract higher fines than parking violations.Cell phone use during driving is known to be as dangerous as drunken driving and should be severely punished, besides confiscating the instrument.Responsible Citizens, NGOs like TEST(Traffic Engineers and Safety Trainers-http://www.testtraffic.org/) and like minded organisations should be made partners in 24/7 enforcement by encouraging them to be the eyes and ears of the enforcement authorities, like traffic police and Road transport autorities. For this service they could be rewarded by additional penalty of 20% on the violators. This will be an incentive for the violators to pay for their own transformation. It will also fund the service organizations. It will also improve compliance which is now at a very low level because of the overconfidence that enfocement is not omnipresent.The 500 years of foreign presence has mutated our genes into a kind of childish mentality. We always depend on some authority figure to direct and control our actions. With the result, we fail in our duties to follow rules and therefore we lack the guts assert our rights.We have not yet grown up to fit our independent status. We need to develop self discipline, not enforced. Let us grow up, atleast now, sixty years post independence and show the world we are worthy of it.Secretary TrainingTraffic Engineers and Safety TrainersBangalore

Bangaloreans should do their Mite:LED pub 25 Mar 2007 TOI pg 7

CITY MAILBOX
MY TIMES, MY VOICE
All Bangaloreans should do their bit to ease traffic.

This is with reference to the atrocious behaviour of the government official Vijayakumar towards the police when caught violating one-way rule (March 24). His attitude was intolerable and he should be punished most severely. This kind of rowdy behaviour is born of the powerful unholy marriage of vote and caste. It is encouraged and perpetuated by the influence raj that is rampant. All Bangaloreans should do their duty to ease the traffic mess. It can be done by strictly following rules, reporting violations and supporting the enforcement efforts of the police. That only 15% of violators pay the fine is a sad post-script which is a mockery of enforcement. M B Nataraj, RECD VIA E-MAIL

ARROGANCE OF VOTE CASTE INFLUENCE -LEDS 24 Mar 2007

With reference to the atrocious behaviour of government servant Vijayakumar directed at the police, when caught violating oneway rule.
This is a totally intolerable attitude and has to be punished most severely.
This kind of rowdy behaviour is born of the powerful unholy marriage of VOTE and CASTE.
It is encouraged and perpetuated by the influence raj that is rampant.

At the least he should be thrown out of his job.

Every single Bangalorean needs to do his duty to ease the traffic mess.
It can be by strictly following rules, reporting violations and supporting the enfocement efforts of DCP Saleem and similar minded officials, like him are doing.
That only 15 percent of violators pay the fine is a sad postscript which is a mockery of enforcement.
Some facts to mull over the miserable traffic state we have turned India, especially Bangalore into.
It is well known that cell phone driving impairs driving ability equally as alcohol.
We are pumping atleast 2000 tonnes of pollutants DAILY into Bangalore's atmosphere with the petroleum products we are consuming.
Pollution kills 3 times as many as traffic accidents claim.
Honking encourages rash and reckless driving and deafeningly affects 24000 people in each square, kilometer. It leads to irreversible hearing loss.
These are all very high costs for the meagre questionable luxury driving brings.
Which should raise the question Where are we going?
Let us wake up and do everything or atleast some thing.

Bob Woolmers Murder-IBN-22 Mar 2007

I was sure that it was murder the day his death was announced in the papers.Had this happened in Pakistan, it would have been hushed up totally, thanks to Musharaff''s autocracy.This just strengthens everyones suspicion that Paksitan Cricket is rotten. Not that we have any sense of sportsmanship as far as that goes.But I dont think we would stoop to murder.So typically hamhanded way of Asians.No finesse.If they read Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes (come now we are talking about Pakistanis are we not?) they would have used more subtle means than strangling. What with Woolmer''s diabetes and hypertension and a little bit of advice from anybody in the know. It could have been natural causes.No it had to be the needle of suspicion.It is High time that cricket fraternity BAN Pakistan for a decade atleast from the "GENTLEMAN''s GAME", Irrespective of the findings of the Police. The entire team is tarred.

Annonymous petition to Judge Lakshmanan-IBN16Mar2007

The timing of the annonymous letter is tellingThis is no coincidence.It is a favorite tactic of defendants to delay the due legal process of law by such tactics.It is a wide practice by shyster lawyers and their crooked clients.In this case this fact alone should be sufficient to be held against the defendants guilty.Shame on Mulayam and his Progeny.Is this the rise of the yadavas of mahabharata lore who destroyed themselves and every one else?

Democracy has failed in India-TOI 4 Mar 2007,0page 9

NATION MAILBOX
MY TIMES, MY VOICE
Democracy has failed in India This is with reference to ‘Govt: For stability sake spare convicted MPs’ (March 3). When political convenience overrides law, it is an epitaph for democracy. There is no further proof needed that democracy has not succeeded in India. The founding fathers of this nation foresaw exactly this situation. They safeguarded governance by federal administration of states in case the democratic form did not work for some reason. What this government appears to be conveying by this argument to the Supreme Court is that we are better governed by criminals than dedicated government servants. I do not know how many right-thinking people still want to buy that argument from our representatives. Irrespective of the voters’ political affiliations these representatives should remember they are there on behalf of the people, no matter that most of them are there despite the people. It is time politicians read the writing on the wall. They should administer the nation or get out and the federal system is perfectly capable of running the country. M B Nataraj, RECD VIA E-MAIL

Dog fight in Karnataka-IBN 3 mar 2007

I am an animal lover. I believe in protecting animals.They have a right to live and to a life of quality. Just like us humans.Stray Animal's life and rights cannot take precedence over human lives. Sterilizing them and leaving them to fend for themselves in the wastes of cities, however is not the quality of life they deserve. Man as a civilized being needs to control atleast the urban conditions.Irrespective of the hype created by animal groups about the value of pie dogs to the ecosystem, street dogs and cats are a nuisance.

There is an urgent need to control. I would even go to the extent of saying eliminate stray dogs. Unless, the Proponents of Animal rights can provide shelter and food for all these thousands of animals. There again we have to recall there are millions of humans who are in direr need of help than these animals, whom we are unable to help.There is an urgent need for stringent control of strays by any necessary means.For the street dogs, death is probably a better alternative than the conditions they have to live in.

What can we do to improve traffic-leds

With reference to Sharad Deshmukh's "Road Safety will Improve only with better Roads".
I would like to point out that improving roads, involves too many factors that are beyond our control.
Careful, safe driving is the only factor we all can do something about.
It can be practiced any where any time.
Best if it is obeyed all the time.
It can be easily taught and should be demanded from others.
This can happen when we, road users whether as pedestrians, drivers, passengers or bystanders assert such driving from those around us.
It can happen only when we are willing to become ears and eyes of law by reporting violations as and when they happen. That will only happen when we care enough about the deplorable way traffic is deteriorating around us.
The police are willing more than willing to act if we are.
DCP(Traffic) East pleads for complaints to act,(page 3 -100 autos booked for refusal to ply -22Feb2007)
The question is do we care?
Most of the violations take place on the almost absolute certainty that there are not enough police to check and no body complains.
It is upto us to change that equation.
Grumbling to each other is not action. Complaining to the authorities is.
Results flow from action.
We disguise our inherent indifference as " no time or very busy".
Random unexpected notices and fines are bound to dramatically boost the learning curve improve compliance.
That inturn improves road safety.
We donot need to wait for that some day for road conditions to improve.
We can make it here and now.
Let us remember Vivekananda "AWAKE, ARISE AND STOP NOT TILL THE GOAL IS REACHED".

Govt: for stability sake spare convicted MPs-LEDS

3 Mar 2007,

This is with reference to the day's front page Headline"Govt: for stability sake spare convicted MPs".
When political convenience over rides law it is an epitaph for democracy.
There is no further proof needed than this that democracy has not succeeded in India.
If we still fool ourselves, it is at the expense of Majesty of Law.
The founding father's of this nation foresaw exactly this situation. They safeguarded governance by federal administration of states in case the democratic form did not work for any reason.
What this government appears to be conveying by this argument before the supreme court is that we are better governed by criminals than dedicated government servants.
I donot know how many right thinking people still want to buy that call option from our "Representatives".
Irrespective of the voters political
affiliations these "Representatives" should remember they are there on behalf of the people. Even though most of them are there despite the people.
It is time that the Politicians read the writing on the wall administer the nation or get out and the federal system is perfectly capable of running the country.