During the last 12 months, pump prices for petrol have gone up by about Rs 7.00 per liter to reflect the huge increase in international crude oil price of more than 50%. Petrol price increase is about an increase of 20% and they have been revised at least five times. But autorickshaw fares have not gone up to reflect the cost of operating them. As a result the auto meter tampering which was already extensive has now become universal. There is an elaborate process to fix the meter rates taking into consideration the interests of different stakeholders. In this case the two main stakeholders who are directly affected are autorickshaw owners/drivers and the public who use them. MGP has not done any scientific study to find out what percentage of autos have accurate meters. But based on anecdotal observation, 90% of meters are not accurate and they overcharge as much as 30%. In one respect auto drivers are justified in overcharging. When auto fares are not revised to reflect higher fuel costs, they cannot afford to subsidise the public. On the other hand, tampering with the meter is illegal. But why have the authorities (RTO, Police and the Department of Legal Metrology) failed to find a solution? The process of fixing the auto rates is not simple. Many factors (fuel cost, capital cost, depreciation, maintenance cost, average passenger kilometers, average idle kilometers, etc.) have to be considered. Also a significant percentage of autos have switched to LPG (The legality of using LPG for autos is a separate issue) and the price of LPG, unlike petrol, has gone up by only about 8% during the last 12 months. Many autos also use PDS kerosene illegally. Since there is multiple pricing for the same commodities, blackmarketing in LPG and kerosene is rampant. Thus it would be difficult to compute the actual fuel cost for operating autos. Despite all these obvious problems, MGP requests the RTO to find a solution soon. They should appoint a committee of economists, bureaucrats, representatives of auto drivers unions, consumer activists and police to solve the problem of tampered meters and fair auto rates at the earliest. SAYING GOODBYE TO 2005 and WELCOMING 2006 Dr. Bhamy V. Shenoy, Convener, MGP As 2005 comes to an end, and we get ready to welcome 2006, all concerned and informed residents of Mysore need to reflect on the state of our beloved city. It is only we working together can save the city from further deterioration. Mysore Grahakara Parishat started the
campaign of “Save Mysore” on July 19th with the goal of involving all Mysoreans in civic problems. Based on our performance during 2005, we have a long way to go. This article gives a snap shot of how we failed to solve myriads of problems this year and what we should do next year. Water crisis. Despite several protests, meetings and consultations with concerned officials, and assurances by ministers, we have not taken any basic steps to ensure water supply on a daily basis in Mysore. Getting water supply on a continuous basis will remain a distant dream for Mysoreans. Even when MGP questioned the water quality based on standardized tests, Mysore City Corporation instead of trying to improve the purification process found fault with MGP. When mayor made the promises that within a week water will be supplied to all parts of the city on a daily basis, they were denied by the commissioner. Promises of daily water supplies were made repeatedly and broken several times. Water supply capacity was unnecessarily reduced by closing down a feeder canal to construct a small bridge. It could have been avoided by diverting water flow. Neither MCC nor Vani Vilas Water works knew about the true reason and it was MGP and MATF who found the true reason. Finally VVW has computerized the billing system. But they cannot tell within any degree of accuracy the cost of supplying 1000 liters of water. VVW does not have any idea on how much water is actually pumped and received by the city, what is the current daily water need of the city, how much water is lost during distribution, how many customers have meters, how many meters are working etc. In other words, VVW is operating with little or no information. The roof of the tank in Vijayanagar has so many leaks it may collapse any time. MCC has no funds to repair it. A stand by pump given for repair is not brought back to Hongally for lack of funds. More than 800 employees of VVW are working on a contract basis with no regular payments and no proper training. Emergency pump work at Hongally which should have been completed two years back is still not completed and contractor is not held responsible. Instead of solving these operating problems, MCC is exclusively concentrating on getting sanctions for Melapur and Kabini projects where there are contracts with crores of money involved. MGP has been recommending from a long time that VVW be separated from MCC and be made into a separate company managed by competent people and held accountable to supply water on a continuous basis at affordable price. No action is taken on solving problems for the long term. Just band aid type of solutions are attempted at best. Pig Menace Mysoreans will not forget the solemn assurances given by former mayor Dakshinamurthy that he would get rid of pigs within a month. There were even dramas staged of catching pigs and MCC officials being pictured in a place where those pigs will be transferred. What a cruel joke! Now it is more than six months since the mayors warning to pig owners to remove them from city and pigs are freely roaming around the city. Its population is even expanding rapidly. Are we waiting for some precious little child to die of brain fever to get rid of pigs? MGP has never minimized the problem of removing pigs. MGP is fully aware of the livelihood involved of hundreds of
poor families and we have taken the stand they should be properly compensated. But less than 5% of families control 90% of pig population and it is those rich pig rearers who are preventing MCC from taking any action. Should we be mute spectator to this sordid drama? Should not MCC be enforcing the laws without fear? Garbage Handling Nirmala Nagara is good project to get the involvement of the residents and to make them aware of the need to be concerned about the garbage. Unfortunately instead of dealing with the fundamental causes of garbage problem, MCC has been concentrating just on getting neighborhood committees involved in handling the garbage. It is rather sad that MCC wants to transfer the problem of handling garbage to NGOs. Garbage handling is not a simple task to be left to NGOs however dedicated they may be. They can be used for educating the public to separate the garbage into different categories like those that can be recycled, kitchen waste, plastic etc. The contract that Excel plant signed with MCC was never implemented to handle the city’s garbage with any degree of seriousness. When Excel failed to give agreed fees and operate the plant, MCC took its own sweet time to impose contract terms. The garbage handling plant is operating intermittently at best today and garbage is disposed the old way. During 2005, unprocessed garbage became a mountain at Excel plant creating health hazard for its neighbours. Will MCC find a competent company to operate the garbage processing plant in 2006? There is no medium or long term plan for handling increasing load of garbage. Mysore which is already a garbage city will continue to be dirtier. Building code violations and Vanishing Footpath Accolades were given to MCC when the commissioner boldly decided to remove encroachment in some areas of the city. There were some lapses and allegations of some parties being favoured, owners not being warned etc. Still the public fully supported the principled stand of the commissioner. His action was compared to that of famous former Mumbai commissioner Khairnar. But the drive to remove encroachment stopped suddenly and it has never started as promised. Another promise was broken by MCC. With hind sight we will not be wrong if we state the obvious that MCC was never serious in removing building code violations. There are thousands of such cases all over the city and MCC has done hardly any things against the violators. In fact for once the commissioner was right when he said that most do not follow the building codes in our city. Does this mean MCC cannot do any thing about it? This is the most fertile area for MCC officers to collect bribe. There has been no improvement in this area at all in 2005. CDP When the former MUDA commissioner S. K. Panday called a meeting in April of different stakeholders to initiate preparing Comprehensive Development Plan, some of us were delighted that Mysoreans will finally have a chance to contribute and get involved in planning the future of our city. Our dreams have been shattered now. Even before completing his full term he was