Bangalore One spikes BDA's info kiosk plans

Bangalore One spikes BDA's info kiosk plans

Bosky Khanna. Bangalore

The long-pending proposal of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to set up e-pragathi kiosks for citizens to access information on sites and status of projects across the city has been shelved.
These kiosks have been taken over by Bangalore One, the single window payment service and information provider, leaving no scope for citizens to find details on sites and status of projects they are interested in.
Instead, the information available now through these kiosks pertains to a range of data that Bangalore One dishes out to the citizens.
The idea of e-pragathi kiosks was mooted by the BDA in 2005. It had sought to set these up in all new, existing and upcoming layouts.
BDA officials blame Bangalore One for taking up all the space. They said Bangalore One took over the kiosks on the pretext of including the information that BDA would have given through these kiosks. But none of the information pertaining to BDA comes through these kiosks, they said.
H S Kumudavalli, Bangalore One director, told DNA: "Bangalore One took over four centres from BDA on February 2008. These kiosks were handed over to us as they had similar facilities which we were offering. We had taken over all except two which still remain with BDA. We would be acquiring more as and when space is available. We formally apply to BDA to take them over in order to extend our services."
However, BDA spokesperson Puttaswamy said the existing two kiosks kiosks at J P Nagar and at the BDA head office have become mere buildings with no facilities.
"The Bangalore One kiosks have left no room for us to set up our own kiosks in the new BDA layouts of Banashankari, Anjanapura and Sarjapura, he said.
The citizen service centres which the BDA had set up in four zones – south, west, north and central – have also been taken over since Bangalore One centres wanted all the facilities, a source said.