Autos taking Mysoreans for a ride

It was in 2008, SOM had published my detailed article titled Woes of Auto Consumers (see below). It had discussed both the problems faced by auto consumers as well as the terrible problems of auto drivers in earning enough to meet their daily requirements. It will not come as a surprise to any one if the concerned authorities or political leadership has failed to take steps to solve this consumer problem which has been affecting most Mysoreans.

At that time there were about 17000 registered autos in the city. In addition there were thousands of unregistered autos. During the last four years, number of autos serving Mysore must have gone up considerably. With that problems faced by auto consumers have also gone up. While prepaid taxi services at the bus stand and railway station has certainly helped the consumers, for others it is nightmare to ride auto.

As a regular user of autos, I have the first hand experience of getting cheated by them. Even for less than the minimum distance they demand Rs. 20 because petrol price has gone up. Actually most if not all autos run now on LPG whose price if any thing has remained more or less the same or has gone up only marginally. This is because the auto LPG price fluctuate with the international crude oil price whereas petrol price was liberalized since 18 months.

Many autos refuse to start the meter. The standard reply is that the meter is not working or it has just broken. If they happen to use the meter, more than likely it would have been deliberately set to jump.

Now that we have a campaign to fight corruption in our city, can we take steps to eliminate or at least reduce corruption in the auto rickshaw sector? Autos cheat the consumers because they are unable to earn enough. This is because there are a number of unregistered autos. Why cant the concerned authorities take steps to stop this menace? I have been told that when an unregistered auto is caught he pays a fine of Rs 100 which of course is passed on to consumers. We do not know how much mamul they have to pay in addition. When autos go for registration or meter calibration, no work will get done without paying a bribe. This again is collected finally from the consumers.

Unless we ensure that most auto drivers can earn enough for their living as suggested above, woes of auto consumers will only get worse.

Woes of Auto Consumers.
Bhamy V. Shenoy, Mysore Grahakara Parishat

In our city, it will be very difficult to find one auto whose meter is working properly. It is equally difficult to find any auto consumer who feels he or she has not been cheated excepting when prepaid autos are used at bus and railway stations. This is a statement based on my personal experience. I use auto often and have bitter experience of being cheated by most of them. However there are rare cases, they accept the right fare when I complain to them about faulty meter, show my knowledge of the actual distance traveled and my association with MGP.

I have a lot of sympathy for the auto drivers. I suspect many of them are not able to earn subsistence living even after putting many hours. They are forced by our cruel and corrupt system to pay bribe to authorities (mostly police according to them) despite their poor earnings. Some of them may even belong to below poverty level category. But this does not give them the right to cheat the consumers and also abuse us. Every day battles are fought with the auto drivers as customers alight at their destination in every part of the city. This is very unfortunate and should be avoided. Today auto travel has become a nightmare. As a result I have been now travelling by public transportation whenever it is possible.

To throw more light on this problem, I have attempted to compute the economics of auto drivers (see table). I had to make many educated estimates even after collecting information from a group of auto drivers. Still the results may fairly represent the economic problems faced by auto drivers.

My computations show that a typical auto driver making six daily trips of average 5 kilometers (total paid distance traveled of 30 Kms) using LPG at official price of Rs. 350 per 5.5 KG tank can earn Rs 1959 per month. His monthly income will fall to Rs. 1465 if he has to use petrol. This income though above the BPL, is not enough for a family of four. However if an auto driver makes trips for just 50 kilometers then his monthly income after all expenses will be Rs 5559 and Rs 4672 for LPG and petrol fueled vehicles respectively. With more than 15600 registered and several thousands unregistered autos in the city, not many drivers will be lucky to get enough trips to cover daily distance of 50 kms. Even at lower number of trips, amount of revenues generated in auto sector is more than Rs 28 laks per day.

A critical study of auto sector mirrors many corruption problems faced by our society. Since driving an auto does not require much skill, even unemployable college graduates are attracted towards this sector. It is easy to get bank financing for auto purchases. However when an auto driver finds that he is unable to make both ends meet, he starts to break the laws. He tampers with the meters to collect higher fare. He is unable to maintain his auto in good condition. Since he knows he is breaking the law or not in compliance with the vehicle rules, police and RTO are able to collect their mamuls from them.

Instead of using petrol, he uses subsidized kerosene to blend with petrol to operate his autos. He also has access to the so called MS petrol which is cheaper despite knowing it is illegal. The difference between auto LPG and residential LPG is so huge (Rs 31.82 versus 10.55 per liter) that many autos run on LPG allocated for residential use. This creates an LPG shortage for residential consumers. Auto sector is one where LPG dealers can make a killing by diverting their allotted residential LPG.

Mysore Grahakara Parishat has asked the metrology department in Deputy Commissioners office to do a random check of autos to detect meter tampering. Of course this is a hopeless task since most have tampered meters today. Still if auto drivers know that there will be an inspection and heavy penalty will be imposed if found guilty, things could improve.

Another alternative is for Police/RTO/DCs office to publish a booklet giving distances between important places. Third alternative is to force the autos to change over to digital meters with distances when time comes for replacement. All these strategies will be of little use, unless we as a society study the basic problem to help the auto drivers to earn enough money to make both ends meet. Now who should take this lead? Unfortunately officials in charge do not seem to have any concern about this issue. It is also equally the fault of consumers that we have failed to contact the officials with our grievances. Just increasing the fare will not solve the problem.

Bhamy V Shenoy, MGP

Photos from the October 2011 issue of Grahaka Patrike

(Vasanthkumar Mysoremath) 

A delegation of PhD students from Europe, Africa and Asia visited MGP office recently and discussed various social issues with MGP members

(D.V.Dayanand Sagar) 

Senior members of MGP, Dr. H.A.B. Parpia (3rd from left), H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana (4th from left) and Maj. Gen. (Rtd.) S.G. Vombatkere (1st from right) presented a memorandum to the Mayor of Mysore Smt. Pushpalatha Chikkanna to declare Mysore a GMO-free (GMO=Genetically Modified Organisms) city.

(B.V.Shenoy) 

The dais at the 22nd Annual General Body meeting of MGP held on 24-9-11 at The Paradise hotel in Yadavagiri.

(B.V.Shenoy) 

The audience at the 22nd Annual General Body meeting of MGP

(B.V.Shenoy)

Members enjoying refreshments after the 22nd Annual General Body meeting of MGP.

Poor planning by government causes suffering for the public

To renovate the old building occupied by the Mysore subregistars' offices, they were shifted in 2003 to a private building (Madhwesha Complex) on Male Mahadeshwara road. MGP strongly complained that the proposed building is unsuitable on several counts, one of which was that the office was on the second floor and access to the aged and the infirm was very difficult. The then Registrar Mr. M. Basavaraj and the Headquarters sub-registrar, Mr. H. Jaleel took these complaints seriously and removed most of the deficiencies within a year. A lift was provided and it proved a boon to the elderly. Separate toilets for ladies and gentlemen, drinking water, ample sitting accommodation for the public, spacious offices for the sud-registrars, ample parking for cars, etc. were provided.

Now the old building has been renovated, but as usual with government undertakings, the expansion was not well-planned and there is not enough space in the new building for both the subregistrars' offices. As a result, only the Mysore North subregistrar's office is being shifted back and Mysore South subregistrar's office will continue to operate from Madhwesha complex. The lift has broken down and due to discord between tenants and landlord, it has not been repaired. This makes access to the aged and the infirm very difficult. With no other option, MGP has now written to the Inspector General of Registration, Bangalore to intercede and rectify this problem.

A.M. Subba Rao, Mysore Grahakara Parishat 

Why is MUDA promoting illegal GPA sale of sites?

MUDA is regularly placing advertisements in local newspapers announcing the sale of MUDA-allotted sites through General Power of Attorney. The advertisements state that if no objections are received within 15 days, MUDA will transfer the site to the buyer.  

But in a historic judgment (pdf) given on 11-10-2011, a three-man bench of the Supreme Court (Justices R.V. Raveendran, A.K. Patnaik and H.L. Gokhale) has outlawed GPA sale of sites allotted by Urban Development Authorities. As the Supreme Court observed in its judgment, the purpose of GPA Sales is to avoid stamp duty and  registration charges, avoid payment of capital gains, invest black money, avoid any public record of transactions, enable persons to hold any number of properties without disclosing them as assets held and avoid payment of 'unearned increases' due to Development Authorities on transfer. Persons who deal in real estate resort to these methods to increase their profit margin, the Supreme Court noted.  

As the Supreme Court observed, GPA sales adversely affect the economy, civil society and law and order. Firstly, it enables large scale evasion of income tax, wealth tax, stamp duty and registration fees thereby denying the benefit of such revenue to the government and the public. Secondly, such transactions enable persons to invest their black money profitably, thereby encouraging circulation of black money and corruption. The Court also noted many serious side-effects of GPA sales. When the market value increases, many vendors (who effected power of attorney sales without registration) are tempted to resell the property taking advantage of the fact that there is no registered instrument or record in any public office thereby cheating the purchaser. The purchaser then tries to take the help of musclemen to 'sort out' the issue and protect his rights. On the other hand, real estate mafia often purchase properties which are already subject to power of attorney sale and then threaten the previous 'Power of Attorney Sale' purchasers from asserting their rights. Either way, such power of attorney sales indirectly lead to growth of real estate mafia and criminalization of real estate transactions.  

"It also makes title verification and certification of title, which is an integral part of orderly conduct of transactions relating to immovable property, difficult, if not impossible, giving  nightmares to bonafide purchasers wanting to own a property with an assurance of good and marketable title", the Supreme Court said.  

After having made these blistering observations on the GPA sale of sites, the Supreme Court went on to say  "We therefore reiterate that immovable property can be legally and lawfully transferred/conveyed only by a registered deed of conveyance. Transactions of the nature of 'GPA sales' or 'Sale Agreement/GPA/Will transfers' do not convey title and do not amount to transfer, nor can they be recognized or valid mode of transfer of immoveable property."  

Even before the Supreme Court decision, MUDA must have realized the illegal and criminal motives (listed above) behind GPA sales and must have prohibited them. But it did not do so. What is shocking is that even after explicit outlawing of GPA sales by the Supreme Court, MUDA is still publishing advertisements and promoting GPA sale of its sites.

P.M. Bhat, Mysore Grahakara Parishat

Some Useful Information on LPG Cylinders

Have you noticed the numbers painted on the inside of one of the three steel plates which connect an LPG cylinder to its handle ring? Have you wondered what they mean? 

According to the Indian Oil Corporation website, all LPG cylinders have to be periodically tested to make sure that they are working properly. New cylinders are tested at the factory to make sure that they meet the standards specified in the Gas Cylinder Rules, 2004 and are released to the market. They are tested again after 10 years and every 5 years after this test. Cylinders which fail the test are withdrawn and destroyed. But when they pass such a test the date of the next test is painted on the inside of one of the three steel plates which connect an LPG cylinder to its handle ring. The date is represented by an alphabet and two numerals. The numerals refer to the year and the alphabets stand for January-March(A), April-June (B), July-September (C) and October-December (D). The code B12 shown in the photo means that the cylinder should be tested before June 2012.

 The empty weight of the cylinder is also painted next to the date of the next test. It is 15.9 kg for the cylinder in the photo. Since the weight of domestic gas is 14.2 kg, this cylinder when it is delivered to a customer should weigh 30.1 kg. By weighing a new cylinder, a customer can make sure that he is not getting short-changed on the weight.

 Supply of a cylinder past the period marked on it is a violation of Sec. 26 of the  Gas Cylinder Rules, 2004. It should be reported to the Food & Civil Supplies Department (located in Deputy Commissioner's Office building) or to S. Krishna on 99459-02135 (call or SMS). 

 A frequently heard complaint is that water is being filled in LPG cylinders, thus cheating the consumers. We thought it was just a rumour, but then we came across a scientific study which appeared in the July 2006 issue of "Forensic Chemist" journal. This paper written by Mr. K.M. Varshney, Assistant Director of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad, has found that in some cases, as much as 36% of the gas in the cylinder had been replaced by water. You can check whether there is water in your cylinder by weighing it when empty. If this weight is more than the weight painted on the cylinder, then the cylinder has water in it.

Asha Vombatkere, Mysore Grahakara Parishat 

For How Long Should You Preserve Old Electricity Receipts?

Many people are not clear about how long they should keep their electricity receipts. Many are worried that the electricity supply companies might bill them under "audit short claim" about power consumed several years earlier. A brief history of the legal position on this issue is given here.

In a decision given in 1993 (III (1993) CPJ 381 (NC)), the National Consumer Commission held that limitation period applies to electricity bills and that the electricity supply company can not raise a bill for power consumed more than three years ago. So consumers do not have to pay audit short claims more than three years old and need not preserve bill payment receipts for more than three years. The Supreme Court, in a judgment given in 1997 (AIR 1997 SC 1101) agreed that the supply companies can not make new demands on power consumed more than three years ago, but it also said that electric companies can disconnect the supply for not clearing the arrears. As a result of this surprising (and apparently self-contradicting) judgment, electricity consumers had to preserve all their old receipts, because if the electricity company claimed that you had not paid a bill 10 years ago, it could disconnect your supply unless you could prove that you had actually paid it.

But the law governing electricity supply was changed in 2003 when the Electricity Act, 2003 came into effect. According to Sec 56(2) of the Act, "no sum due from any consumer, ... shall be recoverable after the period of two years from the date when such sum became first due unless such sum has been shown continuously as recoverable as arrears of charges for electricity supplied and the licensee shall not cut off the supply of the electricity."

Therefore, if your electricity bills are not showing any outstanding arrears, you need to keep the receipts only for a period of two years. The electricity supply company can not claim that you owe money on a bill more than two two years ago and punish you for the non-payment.

Dr.T.N. Manjunath, Mysore Grahakara Parishat

Deceptive MUDA Announcement

Recently MUDA (Mysore Urban Development Authority) called for applications from the public for allotment of sites in Lalitadri Nagar, R.T. Nagar and Chamalapura. The MUDA announcement is deceptive (whether unintentional or not) on several accounts.Notification link (pdf)

1. The announcement does not commit to any specific dates for allotment of sites or for refund of the initial deposit to non-allottees. Since it states that the initial deposit will not earn any interest, it is easy to infer the intentions of MUDA. Huge sums of public money will earn interest to MUDA at the expense of the public.  

2. The guideline paper issued along with the application form does not show any map of the place and the extent of the readiness of the sites, roads,ÿelectricity, water and UGD lines, etc. So the public have no way of knowing when the sites will be ready.   

3. Item 17 of the rules and regulations states that allotment at R.T.Nagar will be considered for only those who have applied for both R.T.Nagar and Lalitadri Nagar. Therefore, people who want sites at R.T.Nagar will have to apply for both places with separate initial deposits. So MUDA gets double the deposit it would otherwise have gotten. This appears to be an unfair trade practice.  

4. An affidavit form has been given, but there are no instructions that it should be submitted on stamp paper (I was told orally that it should be on Rs. 20 stamp paper) and notarized. Omitting the stamp paper and not notarizing the affidavit may itself become a reason for rejection of application!  

5. The affidavit asks the applicant to affirm "I and my family members are residing at the above address and it is a rented house and I am paying a monthly rent of Rs......" What if a person is not paying any rent but otherwise is eligible for allotment of site under MUDA?  

6. It is required that the Domicile Certificate should be signed by an "Administrative officer with seal". Can any administrative officer of any organization sign it?  Getting it signed by any administrative officer may again itself become a reason for rejection of application! 

How can MUDA be so reckless in distributing sites? Statutory bodies such as MUDA need to be more responsible.

Prof. B.S. Shankara, Mysore Grahakara Parishat 

Statins are not Very Cost Effective

The article on statins in the Health and Medicine column of Star Of Mysore (12-10-11) appears to paint a much rosier picture of statins than is warranted by published evidence. The article admits that there is questionable cost effectiveness when statins are used for primary prevention, but goes on to say that statins are effective in decreasing mortality in people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease since statins can cause upto 60% decrease in the number of cardiac events.

The clinical trial (Jupiter trial) which shows these results was a study of 18,000 people. The trial looked only at people who had low cholesterol and an elevated level of inflammation (as measured by CRP) and it looked only at the statin Crestor. The rate of heart attacks was 0.37% among patients who took a placebo and 0.17% among patients who took Crestor. So the study concluded that Crestor reduced heart attacks by 55%.

But a more careful analysis presented in the 31-3-10 issue of the prestigious daily New York Times shows that the benefit of Crestor is much less than it seems. The difference between the two groups translates to only 0.2 percentage points in absolute terms or 2 people out of 1,000. As N.Y. Times puts it, Stated another way, 500 people would need to be treated with Crestor for a year to avoid one usually survivableAt $3.50 a pill, the cost of prescribing Crestor to 500 people for a year would be $638,000 to prevent one heart attack. Spending Rs. 2.5 crores to prevent one usually survivable heart attack does not appear to be cost effective.

Recent studies have also found that use of statin may cause diabetes. A study published in the 27-2-2010 issue of the noted medical journal Lancet shows a 9% increased risk of diabetes for statin users.

C.V. Nagaraj, Mysore Grahakara Parishat

Organic Farming Superior to Chemical Farming - New Study

It is an accepted fact that, from the pollution point of view, organic farming is superior to chemical farming. But a recent study has found that organic farming is superior even from the viewpoints of economic viability and energy usage as well as other environmental points of view such as emission of greenhouse gases and ground water recharging. These findings are highly significant in light of the frequently repeated statements that organic farming is more expensive and that mankind can not be fed if all farmers adopted organic agriculture. The makers of agricultural policy in India have promoted this dogma for so long that the vast majority of Indian farmers seem to believe it. As a result, they have been caught in the vortex of increasing cost of fertilizers, pesticides, power and water and unable to come out, they are resorting in ever increasing numbers to bankruptcy and suicide. It is welcome that this study conducted by a renowned institution has proven that organic farming is more beneficial not just ecologically, but also economically. 

Started in 1981, the Farming Systems Trial at Rodale Institute (Pennsylvania, USA) is one of the world's longest running, side-by-side comparison of organic and chemical agriculture (A study to compare ordinary crops and GM crops is going on for the last three years, but it is too early to come to any definite conclusions). It compares soybean and maize crops grown under three systems, organic manure, organic legume rotation and chemical. The major findings of the report on the completion of 30 years of trial are: 

1.Soil health in the organic systems has increased over time while the chemical systems remain essentially unchanged. One measure of soil health is the amount of carbon contained in the soil. Carbon performs many crucial functions such as acting as a reservoir of plant nutrients, binding soil particles together, providing food source for beneficial microbes, binding heavy metals and pesticides, etc. Carbon increase was highest in the organic manure system, followed by the organic legume system. Instead of an increase, the chemical system has shown a loss in carbon in recent years. The organic fields also increased groundwater recharge and reduced runoff. 

2. Over the thirty years of trials, the yields were the same in organic and chemical systems. 

3. The organic systems used 45% less energy than the chemical systems. 

4. Since the expenses are lower in the organic systems, the profits are higher. If one includes the prmium prices commanded by organic foods, the profits in organic systems were three times the profits in the chemical systems. 

5. Crops grown in the organic systems emit only 70% of the greenhouse gases emitted by crops grown under the chemical systems. 

6. Organically grown crops do not contain dangerous pesticide residues and so are better for human health. 

Though the Rodale study reports that organic farming produces the same yields as does chemical farming, studies by the noted Japanese expert, Masanobu Fukuoka have shown that in natural farming (an extreme form of organic farming in which the plants after reaping are allowed to decay to provide manure for the next crop and there is very little application of external organic manure) the soil steadily improves over time in organic matter, moisture, microbial activity and other soil quality indicators and as a result, the yield keeps increasing. This is in contrast to conventional chemical farming in which the yield increases the first few years and then begins to decrease. 

So chemical (or "modern") farming is ecologically more damaging, economically more expensive and produces less nutritious (and in the opinion of many, less tasty) food than organic (or "traditional") farming. It is tragic that Indian farmers have been forced to change from the much superior traditional farming to modern farming. Eighteenth century British records show that between 1762 and 1766 there were villages in Chingleput district in Tamilnadu which produced up to 12 tons of paddy a hectare in a year (www.cpsindia.org). In comparson, the best modern US production is nine tons per hectare in a year. It was this superiority of traditional agriculture in India that inspired the founder of modern organic farming, Sir Albert Howard. It is hoped that the Rodale study will open the eyes of the agricultural authorities in India and make them refocus on traditional organic farming.

Maj.Gen. (Rtd.) S.G. Vombatkere, Mysore Grahakara Parishat