Ever erring Autos in Hyderabad

Ever erring autos in Hyderabad

Auto rickshaw drivers are a law unto themselves in the tri cities of Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Cyberabad. There are innumerable ways in which they misbehave and inconvenienced passengers stand mute spectators..

CJ: Vyasamoorthy ,  1 hour ago   Views:29   Comments:0

 

AUTO RICKSHAW drivers are a law unto themselves in the tri cities of Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Cyberabad. There are innumerable ways in which they misbehave and inconvenience passengers stand mute spectators. Some problems associated with them are:

• They refuse to ply short distances

• They operate with faulty meters

• They misbehave and are rude to passengers for no reason at all.
  
  
• They demand exorbitant fare unmindful of distance, time or locality.

Citizens are forced to depend upon autos for various reasons. It is cheaper than taxi. Travel by bus involves a lot of inconvenience like: Having to walk long distances from and to bus stops; overcrowded buses; long waits for buses to arrive; non-availability of direct buses forcing one to hop from one route to another. Buses are also not useful for senior citizens, sick people and others who need to reach a railway station or district bus stands with lot of luggage.

The city traffic police personnel are not of much use. At times when I am frustrated in getting an auto, say from Paradise Circle to Lakshmi Nagar in Secunderabad (about 2.5 km). I just force myself upon a traffic constable and request him (pleading that I am a pitiable senior citizen) to fetch/stop an auto for me. Usually he finds an auto for me within ten minutes! How about other places where there is no one to help you? There is a local Traffic Police Helpline (1073) that is not popular. RTA Helpline 1074 is somewhat used by public.

I have a few suggestions to correct the situation. Traffic Police must be taught/trained to be very strict with auto drivers. This is possible. Only the will to correct the situation is required. I always sympathise with traffic police who have to manage traffic while suffering pollution, noise, erratic traffic, heat and dust. Their salaries must be increased to reasonably good levels so that some dignity could be associated with their work. This might deter them from succumbing to petty bribes which in turn makes them lax and inefficient. The department may enlist paid part time volunteers at crowded corners, empowering such volunteers to take disciplinary action – fines, seizure of vehicles, license etc. The AP Police website enumerates some 15 types of complaints and whom to contact for each complaint. No, auto rickshaw complaints are not listed! This website is otherwise highly useful to the common man and I strongly recommend all Hyderabadis to visit the same.

The government may license seven seater autos in city area also. Currently, they are allowed only in outskirts of the city. In Chennai, they are allowed in city areas as well. Hyderabad should copy Chennai. These are very affordable and ply between important points in city. As there is good competition, the operators are courteous and obliging. Unless severe competition is brought up auto drivers will remain unchanged. Presently, the local train services are not used only because the stations are not at a reachable distance by bus service. Seven seater autos can try to operate from all important Metro Railway stations.

Sometimes when autos do not get passengers and have to wait for long hours in expectation to fill all seats. So they waste the time of other passengers who were sitting inside the auto. Instead of criticising them, we should think of helping these drivers too instead of just blaming all the time.

I have a suggestion to improve this situation. In every locality there could be some places where autos congregate though such places are not strictly auto stands. Nearby such auto stands there could be a Pan Shop or something similar. The Pan Shop owner can do a service to auto drivers and residents of nearby colonies acting as a bridge. All that he needs to do is to announce that, the moment he gets a request from a customer on his cell phone he will alert some auto fellow or the other. He will give the name and house number of the customer to the auto. The auto driver could reach the customer and pick him up. A small additional fee for this service can be shared between the Pan shop owner and the auto driver. A simple message announcing his mobile number for this service is all that is required.

Do you know of any Indian city where auto drivers are reasonable and if yes, how is it that such city folks are so blessed?

==============

URL:
http://potpourri.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=15712175


Dr P Vyasamoorthy,
30 Gruhalakshmi Colony, Secunderabad 500015
Ph 27846631 /  9490804278

I blog at:
http://vyasa-kaaranam-ketkadey.blogspot.com/

Have you heard of 1000 % hike in property tax?

Here is an article that I ahve published in the Citizen Journalist Website: Merinews.

You may leave your comments, in addition to this group here, in the website as well.
URL is given at the end.

Have you heard of 1000 % hike in property tax?

Unheard levels of property tax revision in Secunderabad Cantonment is causing worry among property owners. While agreeing with SCB's contention that development projects justify steep increase, alternate ways of funding such projects are suggested.

CJ: Vyasamoorthy ,  1 hour ago   Views:34   Comments:0

SECUNDERABAD CANTONMENT Board, deemed equivalent to a municipality, is revising Property Tax (for residential and commercial properties) after a long gap of 20 years. Property Tax Revisions are to be carried out at regular intervals of three years. Why they were inactive all along is a mystery. In the case of residential properties, the tax increase proposed now ranges from 200 per cent to 800 per cent. A few persons I know, have got 1000 per cent revision too.

You can see that whole proposal is biased, unimaginable (unheard of you may say), unjustified, unaffordable and too harsh on the citizens. Even the elected members of the cantonment board - including the Vice President Pratap- are against a hike of this magnitude.

On being asked about the steep raise in taxes, Chief Executive Officer of SCB came forward with a number of arguments in his favour. The first one is that SCB has not revised taxes since 1988. The statement that tax has not been revised for a number of years is not true. I know of several people who have had their property tax revised regularly once in three years, even during this decade. And these persons have not made any additions/alterations to attract revision either. Large scale revision across the entire cantonment may not have happened for a long time.

If they had revised the taxes regularly, the increases would have been gradual (earlier the raise used to be 20 per cent to 30 per cent). This would have been normal revision and no one would grudge paying the same. Now, after 20 years, many property owners have become senior citizens and after retirement are living with meager pensions or interest on savings. With no regular income at their disposal, how does one expect compliance of tax revision of the order of several hundred per cent?

CEO also has been saying that they need Rs 100 crores for taking up developmental works like underground drainage, sewage treatment plants, road widening etc. Unless the taxes are hiked, no development work can take place.

SCB plans to fund the bulk of this amount from property tax collections. This is simply not done. A small proportion of developmental costs may be passed on to property owners but not the entire burden. Most municipalities get funds for developmental projects from government grants like JNNURM, raising bonds, seeking loans etc.

SCB should pursue getting funds from JNNURM. It may also be interesting to note that SCB has been showing surplus funds during the past successive years, current accruals amounting to Rs 80 crore. How about using a part of it?

SCB says that they are following the customs, practices and norms of GHMC. Yes, only wherever it is convenient for them. In GHMC property tax rules, concessions are available for self-occupied properties, houses having eco-friendly measures like rain water harvesting, trees, solar heating or for houses built many years ago (old buildings) etc. There is no such provision in SCB tax structure. GHMC proposed revision of property taxes (50 per cent raise) in 2007, and after a lot of furore, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh simply cancelled the whole move.

GHMC is supposed to be the role model for SCB. GHMC has generated crores of rupees by letting people get away initially with illegal constructions for several years and then come up with a system of heavy fines (penalty) through the so called building regularisation schemes. SCB also plans to follow this way. They can generate lot funds because violations are aplenty. Of course this method is just a one-off measure of getting some money.

There have not been any large scale developmental activities or infrastructure improvement in the cantonment area for several years. For instance, in the area where I live (Gruhalaksmi Colony) many houses could not be let out for the simple reason that there was acute water shortage. Only a few offices came forward to rent out some houses as their water requirements are small.

Another area that should be SCB's immediate concern is collecting tax arrears. Huge amounts are pending from government/defense establishments and of course defaulting individuals and commercial establishments. Fortunately, in the case of honest tax payers, online payment counters that have come up a few months ago have eased the problem of running after tax collectors. Since tax collectors' work has been reduced, they must now work towards collecting long term dues.

==========================================================

Other Articles by  Vyasamoorthy

• Third Age Learning for senior citizens
• Google offers SMS channels
• Sadistic elders too abuse their kith and kin
• Interest on PPF should be hiked
• Aasara for senior citizens gets good response in AP

 
==========================================================

Having said all the above, one redeeming feature in the whole tax revision exercise is SCB's attempt to reduce anomalies and to standardise taxes based on the principle of equity. There are 6,756 plots in the SCB area, for which owners are paying only Re 1 to Rs 50 property tax per year to the board. There are another 2,200 properties, for which the tax is less than Rs 100 per annum and another 2,000 properties for which the tax being paid is less than Rs 200 per annum. In order to tackle this menace left unchecked over several decades, SCB has come up with a concept of zones and sub zones, type of construction. This is good and everyone appreciates the move.

After taking into account all the factors and facts mentioned above SCB should come out with a revised proposal that is reasonable, justifiable and affordable. Will citizens just grin and pay it up without protest? I am sure there is enough wisdom in SCB authorities not to kill the goose that lays, if not golden eggs, just eggs that you need for survival.

===============

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=15712071&catID=2&category=India

Dr P Vyasamoorthy,
30 Gruhalakshmi Colony, Secunderabad 500015
Ph 27846631 /  9490804278

I blog at:
http://vyasa-kaaranam-ketkadey.blogspot.com/