Of snarls, speeches to jaywalkers and mud in buses

Of snarls, speeches to jaywalkers and mud in buses
The Times of India

On Time? Think twice
Before getting down to serious business, the panelists were involved in a light conversation. The country’s richest woman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw felt we no longer hear of giving eahc other timeframes of ‘10 minutes’ and ‘15 minutes’ to reach a destination. Seconding her on the issue of parking adding to the traffic congestion, K N Shrivastava contended that small cars would be a slightly better option to commute and reach places faster. M R Sreenivasa Murthy had a better option: “How fast you reach a place depends upon the autorickshaw you have in front of your house.”

Lecture as penalty
Police commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh has taken a cue from Thailand where erring jaywalkers were made to sing the national anthem on the road. “I have specially deputed an officer from Basavangudi who is fond of his own voice, to rant an awareness talk to erring jaywalkers on M G Road.” Recently, when some people were caught for the offence, they had to listen to a half-hour lecture from the officer against jaywalking Sunday bus ride
P K Srihari said he and his son were into this weekly practice of travelling in a BMTC bus every Sunday but the quantity of mud inside the buses was an eye-sore. BMTC MD Upendra Tripathy was quick to respond and told Srihari that the next Sunday, he will accompany him in one of the BMTC buses to check it out. To this, other panelists added if the BMTC MD was travelling, the buses would surely be clean. Tripathy replied, ‘Let’s go incognito’. A few other panelists pitched in saying they would like to travel too.

Pollution and poetry
When additional commissioner (traffic) M N Reddy, with his experience in traffic system was introduced as the one man who breathes traffic, the officer was quick to add he only breathes pollution. “I am a survivor amidst traffic,” he smiled. An avid poet, Ajai Kumar Singh said everything was part of life, when he was introduced as a commissioner to whom traffic is no poetry.

Tailpiece
It is possible for the BCC to resurface bad roads after coordinating with the police. This will save a lot of space for The Times of India as well, said KSRTC managing director M R Sreenivasa Murthy in his final comment.