Bus hikes in the state

From midnight last night, Tamil nadu saw major overhauls and hikes in the prices of milk and bus fares. Government got the hike sanctioned in order to generate funds for sustenance. When times are this bad it is only normal that the Government has resorted to such drastic changes especially that the central government is reeking with inefficiency. With no way out the Government puts the people in deep shit.

With the hike in bus fares to almost double the previous ticket prices much to the plight of public transport users, there no alternative to getting place to place or to work than cough up the extra cash for the bus fare.
But there is little to blame, we elected this government so can expect only so much out of them.

But the adverse affect of such a change is saddening. Some vendors use the bus service to get their produce from the market to their shops and they plan on how much money can be spent for their travel well in advance. Such a revision in bus fares will see them suffer as they probably have to cut down their daily expenses severely.

However for us, it would just be a matter of travel costing a little more than usual, at the most it would annoy us that we have less money to spend. Some would probably care less about such a hike and continue their splurging ways as it concerns only those who use the bus service to commute. The scooties and bikes are unaffected.

Today I had to travel to Mylapore and back in the morning, it cost me 15 buck what normally would have cost me 7-8 bucks, almost twice. To add to the price hike, the whole bus was quarreling with the conductor refusing to buy tickets and the whole trip was uncomfortably noisy. Perhaps we should have thought back into how much money was spent by the parties buying us things like free color t.vs free one incandescent bulb's electricity think out from where they conjoured up enough money for such luxorious provisions while neighbouring states can't even manage one of them.

Saving up the 10,000 Cr that is required for an attaining this apparent stability could have been saved up by the Government if they had not spent precious revenue on the poverty ridden fulfilling their childish fantasies Not to put down the already down trodden, but of what use is a color t.v that runs on free electricity when one can't afford their daily staple? People have to rethink their priorities and all will sail through quietly during these hard times.

The fault is like always on the Government's side, the poverty ridden class would do anything to uplift themselves, to give their lives a little more dignity, if I may compare them with kids who want every toy available in the toy shop, the Government pose as a parental figure. The child obviously craves for more toys, but the parent should not spoil him buying him more and more but instead constrain the child to some and make sure he has maintained them well and carefully. This way the child realizes the value of what he has got hence strives to keep safe what he already has and only then should parents get him more as a reward.

Well, what the Government has done is they've spent too much on the toys so they have little money left for basic resources like food and travel and it obviously exposes the government lacking in forward thinking.
Lets hope atleast that the governments learn from their mistakes and we can expect better governance from our future leaders.

The need for reforms- Employment laws for Commercial establishments

The headlines of The Hindu newspaper 1/11/11 shows that Chennai metropolitan development authorities (CMDA) have taken the initiative to lock down illegal and unauthorized establishments in T.nagar following a court order to demolish unauthorized buildings 2 months ago. Such an extreme decision was invoked owing to the 12 year battle between the traders and government officials regarding the issue. It started off with a regularization of illegal commercial establishments for a fee which the shop owners challenged in the court. What the shop owners claim is also impractical; they request the court to condone all illegal establishments in the T. nagar area and declare the region as a special retail economic zone.

To me T. nagar is the least preferred place to travel to be it for shopping or just driving through because of the traffic congestion in the region which is perennial, this is a step which will be lauded by residents and users of the T. nagar roads as we can see slightly more free flowing traffic thanks to these developments which according to the papers will encourage bringing more shops into the scanner.

On page 2, however there was an article about the plight of the employees in these textile and jewelry firms who are hoping that they will get their end of the month salaries today being the first of the next month but the shop owners claim that they are unable to do so until the shops are opened. The people working at these firms are helpless as most of them soul bread winners of their families, need the salaries to send home money. They are desperately cling on to their jobs to feed their families. The employers I believe will smartly play their cards not paying their workers unless this issue is sorted out and this will entail employees supporting their cause.

All these issues really seem to surface only due to the fact that not much of the developments in the city are monitored. The monitoring which has started is a little too late as there was found to be too many defaulters a case such as this one where many more commercial establishments are likely to fall under the unauthorized category. They in turn will penalize their workforce until a compromise is reached and the fragile microeconomics present in running their families will be affected.

The authorities will have to deal with the encroachment issue with these issues also in mind because if the process of demolishing illegal constructions get delayed then it is going to in turn affect the government themselves as they would have to address the issues of the families of the affected employees following this.

What can really be done is that employment regulations should be brought about from the state government level itself and also educate the people working under such firms about how they will benefit from such a scheme and how to exercise their rights. These laws would enforce textile and jewelry firms to treat its employees with a little more respect for it is they who run the shop. Also such an intiative from the government would not put them in this situation where they not only have to regulate the city buildings but also keep in mind the fragile familial situation.

Now lets see how the proceedings go. I see it as a huge challenge for the CMDA officials but I also see them learning from it thereby they show more insight the next time such radical decisions are to be made.