purchase Prednisone cod delivery
buy Prednisone without rx
buy Prednisone in the uk
buy Prednisone without a perscription
purchase Prednisone free consultation
purchase Prednisone online without script
order Prednisone for cash on delivery
uk buy Prednisone
Prednisone non prescription for next day delivery
buy generic Prednisone online
Prednisone without rx overnight shipping
buy no prior prescription Prednisone
Prednisone without prescription
buy Prednisone free consultation
buy cheap generic Prednisone online
how to order Prednisone online without a rx
Prednisone free consultation fedex overnight delivery
Prednisone Prednisone
buy generic Prednisone from india
purchase Prednisone without prescription needed
purchase Prednisone without prescription pay cod
Prednisone u.p.s shipping cod
buy cheap generic Prednisone online
buy cheapest Prednisone
Prednisone without rx medications
buy Prednisone paypal without rx
where can i purchase Prednisone without a prescription
purchase cheap Prednisone online
purchase Prednisone cod next day delivery
buy generic Prednisone
comprar Prednisone generico
Prednisone without prescription shipped overnight express
purchase online prescription Prednisone
buy Prednisone legally
Prednisone cod online orders
Prednisone on line
uk Prednisone cheap
buy Prednisone without a prescription online
Prednisone buy
order Prednisone free next day airPrednisone on line
Prednisone cheap
purchase Prednisone free consultation
order Prednisone order amex
generic Prednisone uk
buy Prednisone without rx from us pharmacy
want to buy Prednisone in usa
purchase Prednisone prescription online
buy Prednisone amex
order Prednisone pay pal online without rx
purchase Prednisone without prescription pay cod
buy Prednisone once a day
Prednisone non rx fedex overnight free
buy cheap generic Prednisone
Prednisone no doctors prescription
purchase Prednisone no visa without prescription
buy Prednisone cash on delivery
Prednisone cheap no rx required canada
fedex Prednisone overnight without a rx
purchase Prednisone no visa without prescription
buy Prednisone in england
where to buy Prednisone online
where can i purchase Prednisone without a prescription
buy Prednisone no visa online without prescription
Prednisone online consultant
purchase Prednisone no prescription cheap
buy Prednisone from india
order cheap Prednisone online
buy Prednisone diet pill
buy Prednisone toronto
where can i buy Prednisone online
Prednisone fedex
comprar Prednisone generico
buy Prednisone visa
where can i purchase Prednisone without a prescription
buy Prednisone shipped cod
Prednisone 40mg
want to buy Prednisone in usa
Prednisone online prescription
purchasing Prednisone online without prescription
Prednisone no prior script
Prednisone online no prescription
fedex Prednisone without priscription
purchase Prednisone visa without prescription
purchase Prednisone pay pal online without rx
Prednisone 40mg
buy Prednisone cash on delivery
Prednisone 40mg
buying Prednisone online without rx
no prescriptions needed for Prednisone
buy Prednisone no prescription low cost
buy online rx Prednisone without
order Prednisone pay pal online without rx
no prescriptions needed for Prednisone
cheap Prednisone usa
purchase Prednisone overnight delivery
Prednisone generic
buy Prednisone once a day
purchase Prednisone online without rx
Prednisone buy Prednisone
buy Prednisone no visa online without rx
order rx free Prednisone
buy Prednisone usa
where to buy Prednisone by cod
buy Prednisone without a prescription online
where can i buy Prednisone
Prednisone shipped cash on
buy Prednisone no prescription
Prednisone generic
Prednisone shipped cash on
cheap purchase Prednisone
Prednisone online consultant
buy Prednisone online overseas
where can i buy Prednisone without a rx
Prednisone order
buy discount Prednisone
fedex Prednisone without priscription
buy Prednisone pay pal without prescription
buy genuine Prednisone
order Prednisone online
Prednisone bestellen
buy Prednisone usa
purchase Prednisone without prescription
buy cheap Prednisone line
buy Prednisone in india
Prednisone uk
buy Prednisone line
buy on line Prednisone
Prednisone without a perscription
buy Prednisone 40 mg
order Prednisone online
Prednisone toronto
buy Prednisone and Prednisone
how to purchase Prednisone online without a prescription
order Prednisone on line
no rx cod Prednisone
how to order Prednisone online without a prescription
Prednisone no prior script
uk order Prednisone
cheap order rx Prednisone
buy generic Prednisone online
pharmacy Prednisone
buy cheap Prednisone
Prednisone without rx medications
buy Prednisone pay cod
where buy Prednisone
purchase Prednisone online without prescription
Prednisone and Prednisone
buy pharmacy Prednisone waterview
purchase Prednisone without prescription to ship overnight
order online Prednisone without prescription
As Transparent Chennai has worked more and more with government statistics at the city level, we have been surprised at how problematic many of these records are.
Here’s an interesting and revealing image that we wanted to share with you. One of our focus areas in our research is pedestrian infrastructure. We wanted to figure out what percentage of the city’s roads have sidewalks. To do this, our researcher RoshanToshniwal filed a petition under the Right to Information Act to the Corporation, asking for lengths and widths of sidewalks and roads maintained by them by Zone and ward.
When we mapped the sidewalk and roads data, we got some really wild looking numbers. Take a look at the map below:
This map shows the percentage of sidewalks to roads by ward in the city, with white showing wards which reported no sidewalks at all, and the rest of the wards divided into quartiles. The darker the color, the larger the percentage of sidewalks relative to roads. Given what we have experienced of Chennai roads, we expected to see fairly low numbers for these percentages, since many of the roads that we walk on have no sidewalks at all.
But we also saw a number of wards that reported extremely high percentages of sidewalks – one even reporting a percentage of sidewalk to road length of 372%! Even 200% coverage would have made sense – sidewalks on both sides of every road in the ward. But how could any ward have sidewalks that are 3.5 times the length of all the roads?
The city receives limited funds for footpaths – and decisions for how to prioritize this money need to be made with good data about where sidewalks are in the city, and where they are not. Luckily, bad data of the sort highlighted here is not all pervasive – according to the dataset (available for download on this page), most of the 200%+ numbers come from one Zone, Zone 6. Now that the Corporation has expanded, and each new Zone is re-organizing its data, it’s a good time to look closely at existing records and improving their quality wherever required.
Text by Nithya V. Raman
Map by Prabu Raja
Data collection and processing by RoshanToshniwal
It is six years since the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission became official on Dec 3, 2005. These were expected to be the six defining years for India’s urban landscape. JNNURM gave rise to a million new hopes and desires. Its ‘one of a kind’ design coaxed people to believe that hopes would somehow be fulfilled in the next seven years when the program was to be rolled out in our rapidly urbanizing Indian cities. We are now entering the seventh year, and questions are being asked -Have hopes been fulfilled? Did JNNURM succeed in delivering its promises? Did the urban sector reforms lead to equitable, efficient, productive and responsive cities, as aimed by the $20 billion programme? Were reforms in accordance with the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 which seeks to strengthen urban local bodies? Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are not so clear cut, as a talk I attended last week made clear.
Recently, Professor K.C. Sivaramakrishnan, a former IAS officer who served in the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority and is a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the JNNURM, talked about his new book –Re-visioning Indian Cities: The Urban Renewal Mission, at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai. I have to admit that I haven’t read the book yet, but the discussion was intriguing and left the audience thinking about key urban issues and concerns that have plagued the Indian economy for decades.
Sivaramakrishnan started his talk provocatively: “I have lived to see four decades of what one may want to call an urban mess,” he said. He had come to Chennai days after attending the sixth anniversary celebration of the JNNURM held at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi along with city officials, state ministers and other key urban leaders. He told us that the awards ceremony encapsulated the progress of the JNNURM so far. The JNNURM has had some positive impact: it has prompted people to engage with the urban agenda as never before in Indian history. Awards were presented at the ceremony to cities whose success stories in providing better services would not have been widely recognized without such a program, like a town in Tripura which successfully implemented 24X7 water. Many more buses are on the roads thanks to the NURM, an objective that was not even part of the original program.
But Sivaramakrishnan cautioned that it was not clear that the program had achieved its ambitious objectives. The program promised to be different, but he argued that the JNNURM was put together like any other centrally sponsored scheme, with all the attendant problems. The concept that ‘better performing cities should get more money’ was shot down by the Planning Commission. Most importantly, he pointed out that the program’s stated commitment to empowering Urban Local Bodies was immediately derailed by treating the para-statals (which are controlled by the state governments) as the same as ULB’s.
According to him, state governments have always undermined and assaulted the capabilities and powers of the municipalities, and that the JNNURM did not change this trend. He argued that “[t]he tendency of the state government to say municipalities are useless has to change. Because of this tendency, parastatals were created. There has been no serious attempt to decentralize in spite of the 73rd and 74th Amendment.”
The floor was then opened to the audience for questions. I must confess that I couldn’t contain my excitement at this stage because I anticipated some seriously controversial questions. Mr. SP Ambrose, a retired IAS officer, Managing Editor of our very own Adyar Times, and also a government servant for many years, did not disappoint me. He asked whether the JNNURM had led to better cities or contributed further to the urban mess. He also asked if JNNURM had done very well in some cities, examples which can be highlighted and replicated in other cities.
To this, the professor immediately said:“Some cities have definitely done well in the last decade but I cannot directly link it with JNNURM’s effectiveness. Cities that have done well, like Surat, did well even before the introduction of JNNURM. This is because of a fairly robust arrangement between the local and state political set up.”
Prof. Sivaramakrishnan also highlighted the impact of the bus component of the JNNURM in cities. “When the BRT was introduced in Delhi, 90 per cent of the car owners said that it was a dreadful concept to have bus lines. 90 per cent of the bus owners and users said this was a wonderful concept. So, one can see the intensity of conflict of interest not only between various levels in the bureaucracy, but also between the different socio-economic groups.” In this case, the JNNURM intensified conflict between these classes, but perhaps such conflict will push cities to make decisions about how to more equitably allocate public spaces like roads.
When the audience further prodded him to comment on the effectiveness of the programme, and why his book refuses to give an overall picture of the efficacy of the programme, he highlighted the lack of adequate data on change. He continued: “Let me tell you about the mid-term evaluation of this programme. Assessment of the projects has just been a box-ticking exercise … There has been no determined effort to break away from patterns.”
Prof. Sivaramakrishnan ended by thanking the audience for taking out precious time away from the kachheri season in Chennai. He closed the evening by saying that one book always gives way to another, and that he is confident that he will be back next year talking about his new book.
Verdict: Grab this book if you are interested in learning more about the JNNURM from the perspective of an insider!
Somya Sethuraman
http://www.accountabilityindia.in/accountabilityblog/2340-mapping-local-accountability
Nithya V Raman and Siddharth Hande
We at Transparent Chennai were looking to increase the availability of information available about the performance of individual elected representatives in office, particularly of ward councilors. But how can you best do that?
At the MP and MLA level, individual legislators are rarely associated with particular bills, and voting happens almost exclusively along party lines. As a result, when most organizations collect information about the performance of elected representatives, they look at other pieces of available information: their attendance in the legislative council or assembly, the number and kinds of questions they asked while they were there, and their spending from their local development funds. Ward councilors are slightly different: in Chennai, they propose resolutions usually related to issues affecting their constituency that are then approved by the Council and implemented.
However, we realized that simply collecting information about resolutions, questions, and attendance, did not tell us the entire story about a ward councilor’s performance. We were also interested in outcomes – how did the ward actually fare under their leadership with respect to urban services?
This is a hard question to answer because of the paucity and inconsistency of data available to connect a legislator’s performance with outcomes at the constituency level- especially those of the city and the ward (High Powered Expert Committee 2011, 45). Official statistics on most aspects of city life, such as access to sanitation, extent and quality of sidewalks, slums, and public health are incomplete, and almost never disaggregated to the ward level. Even when data is present, it is often skewed as it fails to record (or even acknowledge) the deficiency in urban services to many of the city’s residents because they are seen to exist in the realm of the ‘informal’; like residents in a slum (see Roy 2009, High Powered Expert Committee 2011, 45).
This is why Transparent Chennai started the Ward Accountability Experiment, where we are using citizen efforts to create data about issues in urban services at the ward level, data that could potentially be used to hold elected representatives accountable for making improvements (Cavill & Sohail 2004, see also Blair 2000).
We began our efforts in a single ward. Each Saturday this September, nearly a hundred volunteers from civil society groups and colleges throughout the city walked around the streets of ward 176 (formerly ward 152 and parts of 151) in the southern part of the city, to capture data about three kinds of outcomes: public sanitation, garbage collection, walkability. We used paper maps and pencils to mark locations of piles of garbage and measured their size, and marked the locations of dustbins and whether they were usable. We found public bathrooms, and recorded their conditions. We also evaluated the road’s walkability, marking locations of broken sidewalks and problems with crossing the street. We also took photographs and videos, and filled out quick surveys to supplement the information in the map. During the survey, we also tested a mobile-app built for us by a local company to see whether GPS readings from it were accurate enough for wider use as a tool for documenting civic issues.
We also took photographs and videos, and filled out quick surveys to supplement the information in the map. During the survey, we also tested a mobile-app built for us by a local company to see whether GPS readings from it were accurate enough for wider use as a tool for documenting civic issues.

Picture1 : Students volunteers gathering before a mapping session

Picture 2: A group of volunteers testing a mobile phone application
The volunteer team worked with Transparent Chennai to digitize the data, converting it from paper to spreadsheets and digital maps that could be analyzed.
The experiment yielded strong data that underscored some of our suspicions about local conditions. 40 of 111 (36%) dustbins on 87 roads that we covered were unusable, and piles of garbage were most prevalent in the poorest parts of the ward. Only 2 of 11 public toilets met basic standards for usability (they had water, lights, and did not have any blockages). And only three out of the twenty roads that we surveyed scored well on walkability, while the rest required improvements.

Picture 3: A map showing public toilet facilities in the ward- those marked in green were deemed useable, while those in red were found to be unusable
At the end of the process, we held a public meeting where we invited all the candidates for ward councilor, as well as residents from the ward. We shared the data and analysis with attendees, and invited councilor candidates to share with us their plans for the ward. Candidates came from four parties, the BJP, AIADMK, Congress and the DMK (although the last candidate came far too late to contribute to the meeting). All of them promised to take action based on the information, but both residents and press covering the event expressed skepticism about their ability and willingness to follow through on their promises.

Picture 4: A resident reflecting on the experiment during the public meeting
We plan to repeat the exercise again in 6 months to see whether the elected councilor held to their promises, and a number of the local residents who came to the meeting committed to participating in the survey next time.
For the mapping, we used low-tech paper maps, so anyone can use these tools, not just those who have access to smart phones and are familiar with the Internet. We believe that this is a crucial element to making these tools inclusive. Using our experiences from the Experiment, we will be refining the methodologies, and making them available in the form of Toolkits in both English and Tamil on our website. Our hope is that we will be able to assist volunteers from many other wards carry out similar exercises locally.
The Transparent Chennai team was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the volunteers, who came week after week to map local conditions and to digitize data.
But what we are most excited about is the promise behind the experiment – that citizens can actually come together and create the data they need for greater accountability of elected representatives.
Data is powerful, and what we like about the possibilities that participatory mapping has opened up for us is that anybody can easily use these tools, either with or without Transparent Chennai’s support, to create information about the city. The ability to create data levels the playing field between government and citizens, and enables citizens to take more control over their local conditions
References:
Blair, H 2000, ‘Participation and accountability at the periphery; democratic local governance in six countries, World Development, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 21–39
Cavill, S & Sohail, M 2004, ‘Strengthening Accountability for Urban Services’, Environment and Urbanization, vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 155-170
High Powered Expert committee 2011, Report on Indian Infrastructure and Services, High Powered expert Committee.
Roy, A 2009, ‘Why India cannot plan its cities: informality, insurgence and the idiom of urbanization’,Planning Theory, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 76-87.
Seeing the kind of effort that volunteers from the Ward Accountability Experiment (WAE) had put in, and the kind of interest generated amongst the public, I had floated the idea of a democratic forum that would allow those interested to pursue other similar kinds of interventions, as well as take ownership of the WAE follow up and monitoring. Another interesting possibility with this was that it could also provide a space where people could engage in questions around accountability in more depth.
There was general consensus among volunteers and friends on the benefits of such a forum, and last Sunday (December 4th 2011) there was a formal meeting where the form and mandate of this was discussed. While the meeting missed some key people that had been very keen to be a part of it, it was nevertheless quite productive and some concrete steps were taken in figuring out just how such a group could work! For example, while the kinks need to be worked out, a couple of functions of the forum were unanimously settled upon; it would focus on collecting and analyzing data for accountability, and more importantly, it would also act as a citizen pressure group to make sure the data creates change. Thus, this forum would try to be the link between good data and better accountability. There were some awesome suggestions for new interventions as well, like creating a stench map of the city!
However, we still haven’t settled on a name! Although there were some suggestions-
- Accountability Experiment
- Accountability Core Team (ACT)
- Forum for Accountability
- All the above, plus an exclamation point.
This conversation will continue on the google group (which I hope to create this week). Exciting times!
If you would like to be a part of this forum and take part in the conversations, email me at Siddharth.hande@gmail.com and I’ll add you to the group!
Siddharth Hande
Sanitation in India has been long ignored by everyone, but is now gaining momentum in the form of discussions and efforts as we approach 2015 – the year when the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN are to be achieved. Apparently, one of these goals is to reduce by half, the proportion of population without access to water and sanitation.
Now with these international targets set, India is attracting a lot of flak from the international fraternity. It looks like India is severely lagging behind all the other developing countries in its water and sanitation targets. The India Human Development Report 2011 also recently stated open defecation as the single largest threat to the health and nutritional status of India. Academicians and statisticians are also punching numbers every second, telling us how bad the situation is currently. Quite naturally, as a result of all of the above, sanitation is now being read and considered as an equally important basic necessity as probably water, shelter and food. Great news!
The hype and buzz about sanitation is so much so that it seems to have even trickled down to Tamil Nadu where the State Planning Commission (SPC) is all geared up to produce some strong protocols on sanitation for the 12th Five Year Plan report. Incidentally, Transparent Chennai had also been doing a lot of work on public toilets for the past 1.5 years and was invited to be a part of the focused group on sanitation for the SPC. This is when we quickly decided to have a meeting with all the stakeholders, and put together an event within two days!
The event was held on December 3, 2011 at IFMR’s Nungambakkam campus. The group that gathered within such short notice confirmed my beliefs about sanitation finally getting its due attention. There were 26 people for the meeting; many who had spent their careers fighting for better sanitation. Organizations, groups and institutions that came for this meeting, and supported the cause were: MIDS, IIT, ExNora, IFMR, IWID India, Safai Karamchari, Working Women’s Forum, Prajnya, Equitas, WaterAid, Janodayam, Women in Development, TAAMS, Penn Urumai Iyyakkam, Revolution by Design, Republican Trade of India, and the State Planning Commission.
All in all the meeting was action packed; 2 hours of heated debate and discussion about “how to eradicate open defecation and create inclusive sanitation in the state of Tamil Nadu?” The answers to most of these problems lay in the governance of sanitation in the state. Various loopholes in administration were identified and discussed in depth, and all members agreed that the efforts of the SHGs and NGOs need to go hand in hand with that of the government. The attendees were also balanced in their views about the sanitation situation. Everyone in the room, including the HoD of District Planning from the SPC, agreed that while there has been a serious lapse in service provision by the authorities, people have also not done anything to ensure that public facilities like toilets are preserved and well maintained. Leaders from slum groups and lower castes also pitched in and the discussions went on smoothly in what someone referred to as “Tanglish” (Tamil+English?). They say language is never a barrier when the intent is right, and the meeting room was a witness to this.
Discussion Chart: Click to see larger image
I only hope that the discussions don’t stop with that meeting, and the dialogue continues to take place till there is a policy change and also strong reforms in the way things have been all along. Meeting in a room and talking about problems is one thing, but to sustain these discussions and apply what we learn from these discussions on the ground is another. Let’s see if we can get there.
Somya Sethuraman
We were invited to organize a panel for the India Urban Conference, held in Mysore between November 17 – 20th, and organized by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Janaagraha, and Yale University.
The panel was supposed to be a “deep dive” session, in which panelists and audience members could engage in a deep discussion of the issues. We decided to use this as an opportunity to get other people to discuss something that we are always thinking about at Transparent Chennai – about whether the methods that we’re developing here are actually viable as a model for improving participation (and accountability) all over the country.
We wanted to start this conversation because there has been a push for greater participation in urban governance by the central government. Currently, the needs of poorer urban residents are not well reflected in the data used for policymaking, nor does the system of elected government at the city level work well in ensuring that residents’ needs are met. Space for more participation is exciting in theory because there is another opportunity to express these needs. In practice, however, participation in urban governance has been really disappointing.
With one important exception – the increase in participatory data collection. Many community groups across the country are coming together to create data that can accurately capture local conditions, provide a realistic basis for planning, and to create data that can actually hold the government accountable. Such practices have flourished recently in part because of the advent of cheap and widely available technological tools like Google Maps and OpenStreetMap.
Our panelists at the IUC were all people who had worked with urban participation, and most with participatory data collection.
Lalitha Kamath, a professor from TISS, presented a case of formal participation gone wrong: the GBWASP project in Bangalore, where formal avenues for participation failed to adequately provide an outlet for residents’ needs. Sid Hande talked about Transparent Chennai’s ward accountability experiment, in which volunteers created data about civic problems that could hold local elected representatives accountable for local improvements. Monalisa Mohanty, the director of the UDRC, showed maps created by slum-dwellers in Orissa about their own settlements, which looked vastly different from the maps created by city authorities.
Finally, Dunu Roy, of the Hazards Center in Delhi spoke about a number of instances in which groups of workers had come together to create data and maps about problems that they were facing, and used them to come up with surprising and counter-intuitive interventions. He also emphasized that community data creation needed to be combined with community data analysis, because the methods used by formal planners may not apply at the local level. He also emphasized that in many cases, the relationship between the formal city and the informal city was an antagonistic one, and that solutions espoused by workers could not be implemented because of opposition from the government or from other city residents.
So, did we get an answer to our question of whether some of the methods that we’re developing at Transparent Chennai can actually serve as a model for improving participation across the country?
Well, not quite. The kinds of initiatives that Sid, Dunu, and Monalisa discussed are resource intensive and time-intensive, and they also often depend on the existence of a partner organization or group that can help communities to create and process data. They are micro-level processes, that are difficult to scale, and that produce data that is difficult to incorporate into existing planning processes. However, they often yielded information around which communities could organize and press for changes and improvements that really reflected local needs for shelter, services, and livelihoods.
Despite such processes not yielding the kind of models and best practices currently in vogue today, participants at the panel discussion seemed to agree that these practices represent a real deepening of democratic practice. They also provide an important counter to the general discourse around planning today, which largely focuses on responding to a perceived crisis in city infrastructure, rather than responding to citizen needs.
Nithya V Raman
As part of a workshop that highlights the importance of maps in the field of New Media at the Asian College of Journalism, a bunch of students and I traveled to Thervoy kandigai recently. Thervoy, a village whose landscape is rapidly changing due to a large portion of land being acquired by SIPCOT for industrial development, is about two and a half hours away from Chennai by bus and is located in the Gummidipoondi Taluk of the Thiruvallur District.
Google Earth image showing the location of Thervoy Kandigai
The reason behind the visit was to introduce the students to the importance of providing a spatial framework when documenting sites in transition (to read about some of the issues that residents of Thervoy have voiced click here and here). Six, six minute documentaries will be made by students and presented on December 9th to a panel of judges at ACJ as part of their coursework. The documentaries will be focused around a particular geographical space in the Thervoy region and will be geo-tagged and available on our website soon after.
Students meeting local residents from Thervoy Kandigai
A resident explaining the medicinal properties of a native plant that grows in the region of land acquired by SIPCOT.
Siddharth Hande
Commute Easy, which was successful in Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata, is now in Chennai. Around 300 Chennaiites have registered (as of 16th November) to find people within a 1km radius whose work timings and route to office match theirs.
Car-pooling is the sharing of rides in a private vehicle among two or more individuals. It involves the use of one person’s private or company vehicle to carry one or more fellow passengers. Car-pooling is the easiest and most common ridesharing arrangement. It usually consists of two or more persons commuting in a vehicle. Sometimes car-poolers share driving, and other responsibilities.
In some cases, one person does all the driving and is reimbursed for mileage by his or her riders. The car-pool driver may pick up passengers from their home or the passenger may find a way to get to the driver’s home at a specified time or they may meet at a particular location. This is in practice in most parts of world to save oil, save parking space and reduce travel demand.
According to Commute Easy founder Vipul Kasera “Many motorists are looking for similar platforms but such initiatives are yet to become popular in the country when compared to other countries”. Lack of awareness rather promotion is the primary reason for this drawback. In a Country which has close to 100 million Internet subscribers, it shouldn’t be a herculean task to promote such initiatives. Social Networking sites offer a platform for free and easy promotion.
Udit Bhandari, founder of indimoto.com, a website that was among the first to launch carpool communities in April 2006, opines that, “Lack of incentives is a big problem hindering the growth of car-pooling in the country,”
Car-pooling can be promoted by giving benefits to people using such methods to commute. Waiving parking charges is one common method adopted by corporate companies around the world. In several countries separate lanes have been provided for people who carpool and their toll charges are subsidized if the car has full occupancy. These could be some incentives that can be looked at in the long term for Indian conditions.
With increasing usage of GPS-enabled smartphones, dynamic car-pooling is also possible. Users will be able to plot throughGPS units those who are likely to require transport on the same route on a real-time basis and use that to their car-pool advantage.
In conclusion, creating awareness and promotion of car-pooling can do wonders if supplemented by a coordination of companies and government bodies in providing incentives to such users.
References
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article2624847.ece
– Iyal Pari
Dear all,
We cordially invite you to a meeting on “Sanitation in Tamil Nadu: The State of Public Conveniences ” with the Transparent Chennai team at the Centre for Development Finance, IFMR, Chennai.
I have been working on sanitation related issues in Chennai for over two years now, and was recently invited by the Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission to be a part of the Core Committee on “Urban Water Supply and Sanitation” for the formulation of the Twelfth Five Year Plan. My duties involve coordinating the committee’s report on “Public Conveniences in Tamil Nadu“. The due date for this report is in a week’s time, and it is a great opportunity for all of us to engage in a meaningful discussion on public toilets in Tamil Nadu.
There is a lack of toilets in public spaces like beaches, bus stops, academic institutions, workplaces, and market areas. There is also a lack of adequate public toilets close to urban slums, informal sector workplaces and construction sites. Public toilets have clearly not been taken up as a priority by city managers, and the worst affected are the urban poor. In the context of rapidly urbanizing cities where there is hardly the capacity for sewerage networks to quickly reach each and every household, and space constraint to build a private toilet – shared toilets, community toilets and public toilets become an important stopgap measure.
Now is our chance to ensure that our problems and suggestions are taken to the policy-making level! We welcome you all to an engaging discussion on public toilets in Chennai and also Tamil Nadu as a whole. Your comments are extremely valuable to us, and I would be greatly obliged if you could make it to this meeting. I also apologize for the short notice, but the deadlines are tight and we need to ensure that suggestions go into the final report.
Please feel free to invite your colleagues and friends who might be interested in taking part in this discussion. Kindly confirm your participation by sending me an email.
Venue: Parvathy Hall, Institute for Financial Management and Research, No. 24 Kothari Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai 34
Date: December 3, 2011
Time: 10am-12noon
Regards,
Somya Sethuraman – somya.sethuraman@ifmr.ac.in
+91 9940503894
Meeting Date- 4th December Sunday 2011
Time- 4 30 PM
Venue- Besant Nagar Beach next to the Police Booth!!
In the build up to the local ward councilor elections that was held in October of this year, Transparent Chennai conducted what it called its ‘Ward Accountability Experiment’ which was a citizen driven initiative where data was collected and visualized through maps that addressed issues concerning surface garbage, walkability and public sanitation in Ward 176 (Besant Nagar).
The core group for this experiment consisted primarily of students from 8 institutions in Chennai who were responsible not only for data collection but also with digitization and logistic support.
The data that we collected was disseminated through a public meeting which was attended by around 100 people (maybe more). Those in attendance included councilor candidates from the BJP, AIDMK and DMK (the AIDMK candidate eventually won).
There was a lot of positive energy post the public meeting and a number of us have been talking about continuing such citizen driven efforts at improving accountability and citizen participation in governance through the formation of a democratic forum.
I really hope that you will be able to attend this planning meeting. Agenda is as follows-
- Discuss the nature and mandate of this forum.
- Deliberate on a name.
- – Discuss possible interventions and follow up with the Ward Counselor of Ward 176.
Please spread the word- the more the merrier!! I will be bringing a white board and maybe some chart paper to help focus our thoughts a bit as well
Please spread it amongst your student groups/ friends as well. It is a great opportunity for college and school students to engage with these kinds of issues!
Looking forward to seeing all of you! Please spread the word through Facebook/Orkut/Twitter etc as well!!!
Here are a few links to the Ward Accountability Experiment details and press coverage–
http://www.transparentchennai.com/2011/09/05/transparent-chennais-ward-accountability-experiment-general-info/
The times of India 9th October 2011- Well-prepared residents pin down candidates on specifics
The Hindu 9th October 2011- Getting to grips with governance
The Indian Express 9th October 2011- Its hollow promises in ward 176
TV Coverage:
NDTV Hindu 9th October 2011- News Tonight
NDTV Hindu 9th October 2011- Headlines Now
- Siddharth Hande