Thanks GVK for suggesting a BLOG for MGP. You are absolutely right in your observation that MGP should adopt the new tools of cyberspace for internet age.

There are so many things MGP should do, but there are very few people available to work upon. For example MGP should take up the following subjects on a war footing:

solid waste handling. ADB supported EXCEL plant is not working. Its original contract was poorly drawn. No one knows the total cost incurred today to remove solid waste. No one knows how much solid waste is generated every day and how much is lifted. This requires not just activists, but some expertise again.

Water Supply. Here also no one has an accurate idea on how water is supplied to the city every day. How much is the transmission and distribution loss. Cost to supply 1000 liters of water. Is Melapur II the best strategy to supply water? No one has studied the problem. In the case of Melapur, for every 10 liters of water supplied from KRS, city gets just one liter. Whereas if the existing system is improved, for every 2 liers of water supplied from KRS city gets one liter. Thus Melapur is not very efficient especially during summer months when KRS level is below 75 feet. We need a first rate expert to take an integrated look at the whole system and not some one claiming that he or she has the perfect answer.

Electricity supply. Here we have a new system to fix tariff by Karnataka Energy Regulatory Commisiion. This is a very good set up. In fact this idea was first suggetsed by MGP more than 10 years back. Here there is a great need for monitoring by civil society for the proper working of KERC. For example when the government signed a deal with tannir Bavi, they did not give enough thought. As a result today we are losing as much as Rs 700 crores. This was pointed out by some activists amd MGP is one of them. . MGP needs input from experts for such monitoring. One needs to collect a great deal of statistics, develop model, write articles, make presenetation etc. There are many retired electrical professors, economists etc in Mysore. But no one comes forward to help MGP. By being active we can save hundreds of crores to consumers, improve electricity etc.

Makkaji Chowka, Jawa factory residential site development, Infosys land acqisition,etc needs study of contracts, studies of environmental impact assessment. Where do we have the needed expertise?

Traffic study of Mysore. This is another major study by itself. Thanks to Bapu Satyanrayana, we are lucky that we have a real expert and are able to contribute in some meangiful way. But he also needs support to run around.

JNNURM. This is a major subejct by itself. We need experts of different backgrounds for helping the city. Where can we find them?

PDS kerosene diversion and adulteration of petrol. One will be amazed to know how much pilferage is taking place. You helped me in crafting the article. Therefore you know what impact this can have on our society. We need hands to collect samples of petrol from different areas, get them analysed, write articles, meet with DC etc. Again we do not have enough manpower. Here we do not need experts. We need active hands.

Please tell me when we need hands to carry out the above short list of things can we undertake some more projects important they may be.Besides we also publish a monthly paper which is distributed to more than 800. There are exactly four and a half active people in MGP which claims to have more than 600 life memmbers. Out of 4.5 active people, we have just four experts in some area.

When such is the case, can we devote time for blogging important as it is. Fortunately some young people from Infosys have joined as life member recently. Hopefully they may help us to do the blogging. .

Thanks for your excellent suggestion. We definitely need active and extensive blogging for the new internet age espceially to get the youth.