For some reason I have not been updating my blog for quite some time now, but the other day one of my friends gave a valuable piece of advice saying that our blog has to be updated not just with the activities that we plan or take up; but to sensitize our readers. Like any other philosophy, we all laughed at it as he said but then I felt he was right and right to a larger extent and decided that I shall post one article in two weeks at least. I am thinking this aloud so that I keep my word or my friends who read it compel me to keep my word. Having said that, this blog would continue to be a medium to discuss general issues... issues that we really need to ponder about.

There is a reason why I picked on this topic, which is of course not of much importance here...

“[India’s] middle-class is bigger than our entire population ... When you start getting wealth, you demand better food ... and prices ... go up.”

Remember some one speaking this? Yes, it was President Bush blaming the Indian middle class for the world food crisis. Before we start accusing someone, lets better consider these facts

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the per-capita consumption of grain in the United States is 2,300 pounds [1,046 kg] compared to 392 pounds [178 kg] in India, in other words - five times more.
The per-capita consumption of poultry in the U.S. is 100 pounds [45.4 kg], in the E.U. its 35 pounds [16.2 kg], while in India, its 4.1 pounds [1.9 kg]. So who's eating more?

78 percent of Indians still live on less than ¢47 [20 rupees] a day. According to official data, 136,324 farmers have committed "distress suicide" between 1997 and 2005. The daily per-capita consumption of cereal has declined from 468 grams in 1990-91 to 412 grams in 2005-06. The consumption of pulses, the main source of protein, declined from 42 grams (72 grams in 1956-57) to 33 grams during this period.

Even if we were to presume that Indians are consuming more food, its impact on the global economy would only be felt when Indian imports from global markets were significant. The fact is that India’s share of total world imports is a mere one percent. Of this, the import of agricultural products is a mere 11.7 percent of that total. Therefore, Indian consumption patterns in no way contribute to the global food crisis.

On the contrary, almost all of the growth in global maize production is being diverted towards bio-fuels. Which was what Fidel Castro exactly warned about a few years ago, that given the large-scale shift toward bio-fuels, a global food grain crisis would be imminent. The result is for us to see now... According to the World Bank, the entirety of the production increases - 51 million tonnes between 2004 and 2005 - was absorbed by the U.S. alone for ethanol production. The E.U. has declared that by 2010, nearly 6 percent of fuel should be bio-fuel. To fill up an average tank with bio-fuel, the amount of maize required is equivalent to its per-capita annual human consumption as a staple.

It is for us to see - who or what is the reason for this food crisis? I unlike; the loud mouthed rulers of certain countries will not prefer to blame the people of a country for their well being and prosperity. Instead it is a shame for the entire world that such capacious amounts of food is being used to quench the insatiable hunger of a handful of power mongers.

Despite all this I have nothing but sympathy towards Mr. Bush. He just relied on his trusted lieutenant, Condoleezza Rice. After all, seeing his own countrymen making a mockery of his intelligence on hearing him say to an Iraqi national that “I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein." President Bush might have thought of playing safe by blindly following & restating Rice.

What Hyderabad needs...!!!???

Over the last few days we have seen many news papers pouring in, the reports about the sanction of the metro rail in Hyderabad. This is being projected as a savior for all the traffic vows. After all it was much awaited, moreover, it is not just like any other cheap mode of transport but one of the most costliest projects ever to come up with the biggest ever private-public-partnership in India costing Rs.8,600 cr (which is expected to rise steeply with the rise in the steel and cement prices in the coming days). But who cares how much it costs and what kind of services they offer and how accessible can these services be, to a common man…. Who cares….!!!????

Well…but we do care, don’t we…!!!???

We do care about where and how all our money is being spent. But why have we, the general public, who are to use these facilities not been included in the debate? If we are not to decide, who else will decide? The bureaucracy? Or the CORPORATES!!!??? who mint money with these kind of projects, by levying the common man heavily with user charges, maintenance charges and what not.

And this is what has happened exactly with the Metro rail project. The first phase of which is expected to serve the state in another 4 years. Many professors and experienced researchers have been voicing their concerns about Metro rail bringing out studies in various forms and trying to convince our government about how useless & a wastage of money this project can be to the state of AP. But again… who cares…!!!???

The day the concept of Metro rail was conceived, the government shelved the Phase II and Phase III of the MMTS, the completion of which would have covered all the routes that the Metro is expected to cover. That too in just another Rs.300-400 cr. against the Rs8, 600 cr. plus that the Metro demands. It is also learnt from the Delhi Metro experience, that there would be no pass facility available for the regular metro travelers and the noise pollution that is created with the movement of the train is simply too high since the coaches are all AC.
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What can we as common man do about it? What can we, as IT employees do about it to make our voices reach the government?
Another signature campaign? Signing up another online petition? Joining the voices that are already inching ahead? What is it…????

Real-time Signature Campaign at Hitech City Station

The last week of February saw the emergence of a new traffic regulation along the Hitec-City JNTU road. Mornings and evenings of working days, the road is made a one-way. This may or may not solve the traffic problem, but the poor commuters of MMTS did face the wrath.

Autorickshaws, which provide the transport service between the station to the Hitec City junction and other places could not run services between 8 and 10 when a large number of employees reach the place in MMTS. After imposing this rule, these people had to wait for long durations on the road, begging for lifts, looking for alternatives and some of them even went ahead and walked down the way to the junction.

A couple of us took out a signature campaign on 27th February to gather the voice of all the stranded people at the station. We gathered around 200 signatures that day. I happen to know Sri. C. Ramaiah, famously known as "IIT Ramaiah", who is also a Member of Legislative Council. We approached him with the issue. He along with MLC Prof. Nageshwar responded positively to the problem and promised to help us talk to the Minister of Transport the very next day.

Next day morning, with the situation no better than the previous day, we carried out a wider appeal and this time many others joined to help. This time around, we gathered more than 700 signatures.

Thanks to all of you who supported by signing.

Campaign in MMTS on 4th Jan

(Sign the petition on http://www.petitiononline.com/mmts4hyd/)

It was great to see the response to the online petition in the first two days. I hope the word spreads and we gather more signatures soon.

However, there was a development that I would like to share with all. On 3rd January, the Hitec City station was a total mess in the morning between 9am and 11am. There was a swarm of autos in the parking but there were no drivers. When asked, I came to know that they had all together left to tackle some conflict with the police leaving all of us stranded at the station. There were about 200 people at the parking who were slowly spreading out the stretch of the road. To add to that, the next train arrived adding a few more hundreds to the existing herd. Now it was a total mess. As expected the traffic also halted, taking away of any chance of alternative transport.

I tried gathering up people to have discussion and possibly come out with something. But people were hardly worried about all that. They were more worried about getting late to office. Quite natural, but I felt that was a time to think about the problem rather than the consequence. (I managed to talk to a few of them who were concerned though.)

However, that experience urged me and one of my colleagues to take another step in this effort. We felt we should take a direct campaign activity. We took out printouts containing an appeal to sign the petition and made small slips out of them. (will post a picture of one soon) I started from Secunderabad and the other guy started from Begumpet at a later time and we distributed these slips among the people.

This seemed like a bit more effective way of spreading the word, though a little extra effort is demanded. The result is also showing up in the number of signatures.

But we wished there were more people with us doing this so that we can reach out to many more. I hope some of you step forward and join us in this. You can shoot a mail to me or leave a comment in this or any posts on this blog.

Forward this as mail among your friends

To all IT professionals of Hyderabad,

Traveling has been a major problem for people living and working in Hyderabad. Every year around 2 lakh vehicles are added to the roads of Hyderabad. With the kind of roads and traffic system we have it is difficult to travel on roads, be it public or private transport.
The introduction of MMTS had come as a rescue for many of us. The time of journey had considerably reduced compared with the time taken to commute between the same places on road. But as we seem to think that the problem is solved there are some more problems that need to be solved.

The Issues:
· Less frequency of trains during peak hours.
· No basic facilities and amenities in most of the railway stations (toilets, drinking water etc.)
· Single ticket counters during peak hours.
· Road connectivity between stations and important destinations.
· No proper security measures

Between Kacheguda and Lingampally, from 7am to 9am and 5pm to 7pm there are only 2 trains. With this limited frequency during peak hours, its becoming increasingly difficult to travel even by MMTS due to over-crowding .

Most of the stations like Hitec City, do not have toilets and drinking water facilities though hundreds of us have to wait there for trains daily.

Even during peak hours the officials operate only one counter to issue tickets and that too at a snail's pace. Though there are more machines available at some stations, they are not put to use for unknown reasons.

The stations are not well connected to important destinations like Hitec City, Gachibowli etc where most of the IT professionals work. There are no proper bus services from the stations and we have to depend on the unreliable autos.

In spite of repeated representations, requests and complaints, the authorities seem to be least bothered about our problems.

What do we do?

Let us make our voice heard, sign the following petition and we will let them know that there are thousands of us who want a change in these situations.

http://www.petitiononline.com/mmts4hyd/petition.html

Let us all try that this New Year brings in with it better services and less problems.

Forward this mail to all your friends, especially IT professionals and let us all stand together bring about the change. When we reach a considerable number of signatures, we will approach the concerned authorities with our united opinion.

"Tum Chalo, tho Hindustaan Chale…."

Better MMTS for Hyderabad (Read First)

This is not an awareness campaign, but an action campaign towards a better MMTS service in Hyderabad, especially in the interest of IT professionals working in Hyderabad and traveling by MMTS.

We have quite a number of problems to face everyday at work, home and otherwise. Traffic and travel only add to these woes. People who travel by MMTS may not suffer from traffic problems but its not problem-free either.

The MMTS service is majorly used by IT professionals working in and around Hitec City and they constitute a large majority of passengers especially during peak hours. Though the number of passengers has been steadily and visibly increasing, nothing has been done to cater to the needs of the growing numbers.

There have been many dialogues, debates and negotiation about this, but hardly any action was taken. There have been many who have tried on our behalf, now its our turn to act to solve our own problem.

Everyone of us might have had this thought to do something about this and mostly hesitate to take the first step alone. Let us all together take this first step and move towards a solution.

When we reach a considerable number of signatures supporting this petition, we can use this as a representation of our united opinion and move the concerned authorities about this.

Let's make our voice heard; sign the petition, inform about it to your friends and colleagues and let us all make the change happen.

Link to petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/mmts4hyd/petition.html



This effort is being made by a few among all of us. If you want to volunteer for the cause, leave a comment with your details.