Mayorji, Bengaluru’s IT industry can do these for free – want to take them up?

by November 13, 2013 Economy, Governance, Ideas at Work

The Mayor feels IT industry has not done enough for Bengaluru. Sir, here are four things that IT can do for the city quickly.

(a) Digitise the property records in the city, and host them online, so that everyone can see who is paying taxes, who is not, and how much. Likewise, digitise the records of government properties, spatially, and put them up online.

(b) Digitise the records of all public works, including the history of works on each road, and put them up.

(c) Digitise file movement in the BBMP, so that the routine work of the agency becomes easily trace-able.

(d) Put up the agenda of Council meetings two days ahead of each meeting, and ask the public to give their opinion on the subjects being discussed. Likewise, publish the meetings of all ward committee meetings, and send them out electronically to resident associations, ward-wise.

I’m sure there are many more ideas that we can all think up together, Mayorji. I suggested all these things to your leaders when your party was in power, Sir. But they seemed shocked at the idea.

I’m glad you have woken up to the many possibilities of technology, and I look forward to seeing you do any one of these in your remaining term. I’ll find you a minimum of hundred IT volunteers to work on each of these projects.

Double or quits?

Related Articles

BBMP computer operators fight for their unpaid wages
Mayor, Commissioner can revoke tree felling decisions, not me: Forest Cell chief

Sections:

About Ashwin Mahesh

Ashwin Mahesh has been involved in public policy for Bengaluru through his work with the Karnataka government. The views expressed here are his own. He is a member of the Lok Satta party. He is also CEO of Mapunity Information Services, and a director at Oorvani Media, publisher of Citizen Matters and India Together. He is also a visiting faculty with the Centre for Public Policy at IIM Bangalore.
Read more by Ashwin Mahesh

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Story

Bengaluru’s poor public transport utilisation needs urgent attention: B.PAC survey

by February 22, 2020 Governance, The BPAC blog
Bengaluru took the top spot this year as the world’s most congested city with commuters expecting to spend an average of 71 per cent extra travel time stuck in traffic. According to the survey conducted by B.PAC, 33 % of the survey respondents said that they do not use public transport in Bengaluru becauseof lack of frequency. First and Last Mile Connectivity to Public Transport in Bengaluru

The city with a population of over 12 million has nearly 8 million vehicles on road as of 2020. The draft revised Master Plan for Bengaluru – 2031 states that the modal share of public transport in total overall trips is only 48% as against 82 % for Mumbai.A city such as Bengaluru which has only 42 Kms of Metro serviced  that too for limited locations and a negligible suburban rail service, an efficient bus transport system is the only most significant public transport system available in the short and medium term. Since the arrival of metro services in the…

Continue reading

Similar Story

Workshop on Street Vendors Act

by December 13, 2019 Governance, Urban Events

The Alternative Law Forum is organising a half day workshop on December 14 between 2.30 PM and 6.30 PM in Bengaluru, on the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 and the Karnataka Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Rules, 2019. Background of the workshop This workshop is being conducted in view of the Town Vending Committees being constituted across the State as per the provisions of the Street Vendors Act, 2014 and the Karnataka Rules 2019, in seven zones of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (with the exception of Bommanahalli Zone).…

Continue reading