The figures are based on the pricing sheet provided by these service providers on 30th March 2010. The Euro and the Dollar conversion rates into Rupees are also of the same date. Hope this is of some value to my fellow internet users.

Exchange rate

1 Euro = 60.53 INR
1 $ = 45.06 INR

Imagine you just had your Sunday lunch and now you want to go to the Mall to meet your friends. It certainly is a difficult proposition for lazy bones like mine to getup and catch a bus where in most likely circumstances I will not get a seat.   This service atleast gives me a positive reinforcement to execute the plan.

Moreover Rs 20 from New Shimla to the Mall doesn’t seem to be expensive as one would spend more than this amount if travelling in bus or own vehicle. Another first with service is the introduction of electronic ticket vending machine by the corporation. The driver acts as a conductor and provides an electronically printed ticket instead of the pre-printed one which is then punched by the bus conductors.

The transport corporation is now planning to introduce electronic ticketing machines in all its local buses as well as inter-city buses. This would certainly prevent cheating on part of both the conductor and the commuter. The tickets printed from the machine are specific and provide details of fare as well as the name of the destination unlike the old tickets. So a passenger, who does know the cost of journey, cannot be overcharged by the conductor. Similarly a passenger cannot dupe the conductor.

In spite of the upsides there remains apprehensions such as paper roll getting stuck in the machine or how the conductors will provide tickets in over crowded bus running in the Shimla town. Since the new system is yet to be introduced the downsides will come to be known only with time.

The picture is not so rosy when it comes to the service delivery aspect of it. In the last 3 months HimVani team has been hearing stories of customer apathy from many of its readers and citizen journalists. Boudhayan, who had recently moved to Shimla from Delhi wanted to renew his motorcycle’s insurance policy. The last one was issued by Reliance General Insurance in Noida. But he was shocked to find that in spite of having centralised systems the companies branch in Shimla was unable to process the renewal of the policy reason given was that branch did not fall in the same zone as Delhi. The option available to him were to go back to Delhi with his vehicle, get it inspected and then a new policy would have been issued.

Service delivery in private sector bank is no better. On a visit to ICICI bank in Shimla one is bound to find bored to death faces of front desk staff, which is just doing its job rather then creating a customer experience. The latest PR campaign of the bank says that it is well capitalised and has high networth. Well Mr. Kamath, certainly your bank is doing well in financial terms but customers expect good service. The “Hum Hein Na” factor is missing in this part of your operations.

Closer by on the mall road, the branch of HDFC bank is no better. Recently a friend wanted to open an institutional savings account for their society in the bank. She was surprised to find that the staff did not proper knowledge of the product as well as the documentation required for it. An account which normally takes an hour to open in a public sector banks is yet to be opened after chasing bank officials for more then 20 days. At the time of application the bank executives found that the board resolution is not in the format which is acceptable to the bank. However they accepted the application with a promise that they will be able to take approvals from their Cluster Head for the same. Surprisingly the approvals are yet to be taken in spite of chasing the bank executives almost every day.

Surprisingly in the both cases the ray of hope came in the form of the much criticised public sector institutions. Boudhayan who finally went to United General Insurance in Shimla had a new policy issued in one hour . All his paper work, vehicle inspection and processing of papers was done by an agent of the company who did not even charge any money from him. Shilpa got her societies account opened with State bank again in one hour and could put in her first cheque the same day. In both the situations the paperwork was completed and the service delivered at the branch itself. The same would have taken 15 – 20 days in private sector institution as service delivery comes from centralised offices in Mumbai or Gurgaon.  It is due to this the HDFC bank executives are still figuring out whether they will get approvals from their bosses or not.

An analysis into the situation shows that in public sector institutions the branch managers have lot more decision making authority. Moreover for them the business is totally dependent of relationships and not on the process. A branch executive in a private sector institution is not confident while committing a service delivery to their clients unlike their counterparts in public sector institutions. Now that most of the public sector institutions are heavily using IT to deliver services through ATM and Online banking the staff is lot freer to offer personal services to customers thus increasing the whole customer experience as well as competition for the private banking and financial institutions.

As usual his search began with newspaper advertisements which are rare, few and far in between. Thanks to extremely localised newspapers such as Divya Himachal or Amar Ujala, one does lay hands on few advertisements and with bated breath call up the mobile number to find out the prices. The polite but uncomforting voices from the other side give answers like these. 3 bed room flat in New Shimla is for Rs 26 Lakh. A flat scheme claiming to be 10 min drive from Mall road starts at Rs 30 lakh although I must tell that vehicles cannot be taken to the mall by one and all. A godforsaken one room flat at the far end of housing board colony in Kelston starts at Rs 7 lakh. This is the same price at which the owner bought the flat few years back. A quick check with HIMUDA, the government agency surprises you even more. Their flats in Kasumpti region start at Rs 35 lakh. The real charm of living in Shimla is of living right on the Mall road. However the last advertisement which I happened to see on an online property website quoted a price of more than a crore of rupees for a property near the mall.

If finding a land or a flat with few hours of sunshine was not enough a challenge then dealing with property dealers certainly is. The major issue in finding the right property in Shimla is that there is no proper mechanism of price discovery. A property dealer remarked that one will get the best deal if property dealers are not involved. If a property dealer gets to hear of a deal which does not involve them they will ensure that seller will jack up the prices beyond the buyers capacity and the deals would never materialise. There are properties around the town which are waiting to be sold but the prices are too inflated.

By the end of all this, one starts wondering is it worth a place to shell out prices equivalent to housing schemes in Faridabad and Ghaziabad. After all Shimla beyond mall road is just a heap of garbage, most of it is sinking under its own weight and the dust looms large belittling the town which claims to be capital of one of greenest states in the country. Moreover the price escalation will not be as quick as one sees in the NCR region. So one wonders is it the right time to invest in a property in Shimla. Well the answer lies in long queues of people lining up at SBI Shimla to file applications for DDA scheme in Delhi.

The city has changed a bit in the last 6 years but college seems to be as we left it. All building but somewhere the soul of an educational institute is missing. The vibrance which we felt when were there is simply not there anymore. The diversity of crowd during our times is also minimal. Dhule however has a new Adlabs theate (Remember Manohar, it has been bought out and converted with AC and Electronic signages like a multiplex). Roads now have dividers so less of chaos. Ganpati no longer has the swimming pool and the clientle is also not there. Prabhakar still shows films with dancing lights during song sequences. Poornima it seems now serves the best food in town.

College campus has a new computer lab however the hostels are in shambles. The toilets in the main building are without water. The only addition has been a drinking water facility in every floor. We were told that new faculty has been recruited but retaining them is an issue. Rs 1.5 Lakh is the going rate for taking admission in the college and the admissions this year are touching near 200. More money for the Gangamai Society but little is being done to improve the basics.

The good thing was that the college took the initiative to welcome its alumni to the campus on 16th August. A small felicitation function was organised where we all got an opportunity to share our career paths with students and faculty. The college authorities also planned to setup an alumni body for which an annual fund of Rs.25000/- have been earmarked by the college administration. There was also a proposal to organise a large alumni reunion to be funded by the college.

As expected the weather was good. It rained on all the days but it was a slow drizzle. The whole area green and welcoming. Somehow the people seemed to be more welcoming then what it used to be 10 years back. Duttamandir to has lost its charm. There are very few students staying in PG’s and rooms on rent in the area. Tri Murti (TMT) still exists and so does the chai ki tapris. Maurya still serves meals but the upkeep is really bad.

Overall a very memorable trip. Wish there were few more people who just could not reach due to last minute cancellations.  I have uploaded photos and videos at my end. They are available at

Day 1

Day 2

Videos (There are 11 of them)

Well without building any background I must confess that last week I was hit by absence of water in my place of residence in Shimla. So that led me to sit up and think of all the stories which started featuring in newspapers recently or the highly opinionated talk which I have been hearing in the social circles of the city. The whole discussion revolves around one particular issue and that is water. So here is an attempt to threadbare the whole issue behind water crisis in Shimla.

Most of the reports coming out in public, talk about the scarcity of water which is being attributed to 3 broad reasons. These are:

* Increase in the population of the Shimla town
* Increase in floating population of tourists visiting Shimla
* No substantial water supply works added by the I&PH department or Municipal committee in last few years.

The population of Shimla has increased from 1, 29,827 persons in 1991 to 1, 74,789 in 2001, recording a decadal growth rate of 34.63 percent. The floating population of the city was 75000 as per 2001 census. So effectively at any point of time the population of the city stands at approximately 2,50,000 people. As per the assumptions made in the Shimla Development Plan the population of Shimla Planning Area is anticipated to increase at the rate of 35 % during the decades of 2011 and 2021, which is likely to be 2, 35,970 and 3,18,560 respectively.

On the other hand the tourist inflow to the city has increased considerably. A survey shows that 18,22,059 tourists travelled to Shimla in Year 2005, of which about 3.4% constituted foreign tourists. However the average stay of tourist in Shimla is about 1.35 days which is considerably low. But the quantum inflow of tourists continues to increase. A friend of mine working with a leading travel agency told me in March that all the major hotels in the city were booked well in advance. Thanks to the more organised players in the tourism industry such as Make My Trip and Yatra, more people in the country are willing to travel and willing to see other parts of the country.

Going through the Shimla Development Plan, one will realise that unlike what appears in the media, efforts have been put from time to time by authorities to take care of Shimla water problems. The first water supply scheme for Shimla was started way back in 1875 to supply water for a population of 20,000. After that 6 more schemes have been launched to augment the water supply to the town. The combined design capacity of the sources is 45.96 Million Litres per Day (MLD), although the present yield is limited to 39.21 MLD (from the five sources) due to technical problems. The last such project to augment supply of water to Shimla city is the recently inaugurated Giri lift water supply scheme which is expected to bring 20 MLD of water to Shimla city. However, it is not clear as to what will be the capacity utilisation of the scheme, as quantity of water in Giri river itself reduces considerably in the summer months.

The statistics as of today show that, 27.37 MLD of treated water from main sources is supplied to Shimla and 2.63 MLD from tube wells during the lean period. The total water supplied to the city is 33 MLD. The present water requirement per day for Shimla City during peak tourist season is 39.85 MLD as against the supply of 33 MLD. Thus, there is deficit of water supply of about 7 MLD, which increases to 17 MLD during summer due to shortfall because of failure of snow or rain in previous winter. Therefore, the average shortfall in water supply is 12 MLD till last week. We have not yet accounted for the growth in both the population and the tourists in coming years.

On the supply side I&PH department spends Rs 45 Crore annually to supply water to Shimla town. The main source of funding for urban water supplies is by charging the end user of water. I&PH, which produces water at Rs. 35 per KL, supplies Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) bulk water at the rate of Rs. 8.80 per KL. SMC is charging Rs. 3.85 per KL of water for domestic purposes even though SMC incurs an additional cost of Rs. 6.50 per KL towards operation and maintenance costs. The financial statements of the SMC show an outstanding amount of Rs 18.74 Crore towards I&PH department. The state government had paid I&PH department Rs 16.46 Crore on behalf of SMC in 2003. This clearly implies that citizens of the state are subsidising. The bill collections efficiency of SMC is meagre 69%. Clearly it makes the case that the state of Himachal Pradesh and its citizens are subsidising the cost of water for residents of Shimla by 90%.

The Giri lift water supply scheme comes as a relief to the citizens of the city but it will certainly add to the increasing electricity bill for both the SMC and I&PH department. In another progressive step, the Government has taken up plans for bringing 45 million litres of water daily to Shimla from Pabbar. The Government has envisaged a gravity scheme under JNNURM to tap into water sources at 2800 m and bring the water down to Shimla (2200m) through pipelines. However the project is to be implemented by the year 2011. On successful completion the project will not only solve water requirements for Shimla for coming few years but also save huge electricity bills borne by the I&PH department on behalf of the citizens of the state.

The water supply problem has been taken care of in the short term but there are some pertinent questions which come up now. How to tackle the increasing operating costs of such projects. How to fund the increasing costs of operations and maintenance of the water supply schemes inside the city? Should the burden of maintaining the cost of water supply to the city to be passed on to the citizens of the city or not? How to improve the efficiency of bill collections at SMC? Is there way out in doing such projects in Public Private and partnerships or getting them building in a stake for communities in the city?

Well it is a thin rope to walk for the planners, the administrators and the politicians but we can sincerely hope that some public debate takes place before decision are taken which affect the common man. Till then we can rejoice with the feeling of water water everywhere !

The problem impacts us in many ways. The immediate impact is in terms of the health of people living in the dirty surroundings. There is an increasing population of street dogs which continue to roam freely, feed on the garbage dumps and on and off do not dither from taking a bite at human flesh. The worst case scenario is when we are left with nothing beautiful to show to our traveller friends in our hill stations.

Garbage dump in Khalini

In the past one year, we have seen all kinds of stakeholders taking initiatives to clean up Shimla. The honourable High Court took upon itself to ban the dumpers in Shimla. Following these orders, the Shimla municipality went ahead and partnered with the Centre for Development Communication, Ahmedabad to implement a door to door collection scheme. However, it is a different matter that the scheme has completely flopped. Now the municipal corporation is planning to blacklist the company.

The government at its level had instructed the forest department to form a committee comprising of Municipal commissioner and representatives of PWD. The committee is yet to meet. It is interesting to note that a proper site to dump garbage in Shimla is yet to be identified. The one in use is already filled up and most of the times garbage is thrown around it and not in it.

Garbage in the Nallah flowing between the Lift and Hotel Combermere

We, the responsible citizens are to be blamed too. I mean how many times the responsible citizens have thrown garbage inside the dumps and not around it. How many times have we segregated the garbage, which we dispose into perishable and non perishable items. Owners of eateries on the Mall make good money selling pastries, pakoras and sandwiches, but have done little efforts to dispose of paper plates, which tourists throw in bins placed recklessly by them in front of their shops.

Dustbins on Mall road, Shimla

Democracy is about engagement. Until and unless citizens engage in the process, it is bound to fail. While talking to my mother, I got to know that the garbage dump in our street in Dharamshala is now being cleaned regularly. What made the difference? The citizens of the area got together and said, “Well, we have had enough”. So they ensure that ward members, municipality officials come to the spot and take responsibility to get the dump cleaned. Sometimes solutions to many problems are quite simple. All we need to do is to engage.

Now we know that Municipal corporation is clueless, so is the Government. It’s time that we the citizens get-together put our brains together and suggest ways to get our habitations clean. We invite our readers to send their suggestions to help tide over this crisis. You can suggest methods of waste disposal which work effectively. Send references of experts on this subject. Tell us how citizens have organised in your neighbourhood to make it clean? Can private sector play some role here?

We promise to compile your views and send it to the concerned officials, follow it up and keep you informed. So leave your comments or Write to Us

Often we hear people saying in Himachal: “Nothing can be done here”. These words have been abused to an extent that the very idea has become firmly engraved in minds of young people in Himachal. The basic idea of Young Guns column at HimVani, here is to break this thought process. So far, the kind of youngsters the column has covered, come from a city background with families to support them. The story, which follows is, of a novel and noble idea pursued from fancy to reality by two brothers belonging to a remote village in Himachal Pradesh.

Mahunag is a small village located on the periphery of Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. The nearest town is Karsog which is roughly 35 km from the village. Like most of the villages in the state, the civil infrastructure is well in place. Mahunag has a High School with nice small playground. There was even an eco-tourism club in the school. Other amenities such as drinking water supply, 24 hours electricity, forest rest house, rural telecom exchange, bus service, health centre are well in place. The visible signs of development were attributed to two local politicians, Mansa Ram and Mast Ram. Both belong to rival political parties and did their bit for the constituency when voted to power.

In spite of the development in the physical infrastructure and connectivity, the place is fairly remote. The remoteness was not just in distance but in our minds considering that there was nothing worthwhile for city sticklers like us to do. The best way to while away time was to strike a conversation. The chowkidar of the Forest Guest House was more than willing to oblige. The discussion meandered around various subjects till we chanced upon the income sources for the village. It came as a surprise to know that he was cultivating Broccoli. Vegetables are cultivated in Himachal to a large extent but mostly they are of a desi variety. To add to it, he was also cultivating other Chinese herbs. Four years back, Balanandra and Jayanandra, two brothers from the village came from Delhi. One was working as a manager in a hotel and the other was with a retail store. They started cultivation of Broccoli in their own fields. Their neighbours too got interested and started planting the exotic vegetable. Today the village produces almost 100 tons of Broccoli alone. Each bigha of land gives approximately five tons of Broccoli.

Broccoli

Broccoli fields, post harvest

It has now become customary for the brothers to come to the village in the month of April. They bring seeds of vegetables along with them. Then, another trip in the month of June is made to the village to pool all the produce. The produce is taken by them to Delhi where the going rate for Broccoli ranges from Rs 60 to 100 per kg, depending on the season. The farmers are paid between Rs 35 and Rs 60 per kg again, depending on the season, produce and quality of the vegetables. Man Singh who owns five bighas of land earns almost Rs 20,000 per bigha for an investment of Rs 3000 – 4000 per bigha.

A local forest official was however complaining. Though happy with the change in the economy of the place, he could not find labour to work in resin tapping work. He has to rely on unskilled labour from other parts of the state and Bihar who were making a mess of resin tapping operations. However, the local farmer is happy, as he gets a reasonable return for his produce. It also reduces his dependence on apple crop, which over the years has become increasingly unpredictable due to vagaries of nature.

During our short stay in the village, we could not meet the two brothers, but Man Singh was happy and attributed it all to them. Hopefully, we will see more Balanandra and Jayanandras who will take upon themselves to change the socio- economic conditions in their villages for better. Proving us all wrong who keep on harping ‘Nothing can be done here”

Some photographs of Mahunag village

Mahunag Temple

Mahunag High School

BSNL Rural exchange

Forest Rest House

Devdar Eco Club Mahunag

HRTC Bus Service .

This Monday (16th April 2007) I had purchased a AIRTEL SIM from a shop in Sector 30, Faridabad. I gave the shop owner documents which he wanted and I was told that the phone will be activated in a 24 hours.

Next day (17th April 2007) when the connection did not get activated I called up the shop owner (Nishant)to inquire. He told me that the SIM which was given to me cannot be activated as it belonged to the old dealer. He than offered me a choice of 5 new numbers to choose from and said these will be activated by next day evening. He requested me to give few more documents which I promptly submitted on the same evening. Here I was given the new SIM which was postpaid connection number 9971366155.

On 18th April the connection did not get activated. I gave couple of calls to Nishant who further talked to Mr Devender (sales) This time i was told that since the server was down my number could not be activated. Nishant requested me to wait for few more hours.

On 19th I went to Nishant’s shop as the connection was not active and requested him to refund my money. I was again told that if I can wait the connection will get activated by 10 in the morning. I took a call to do that.

On 20th morning when the connection was still not active I went to a AIRTEL shop in Lajpat Nagar. The customer rep Miss Poonam was very helpful. She talked to Nishant and found out number of Mr Devender and the provisioning officer (Mr Maatha) in Faridabad. The provisioning officer confirmed that my documents had come to their office but he had not received the money from the dealer. Now this is some different story which I had been hearing all this while. I was again assured that my connection will be activated by 9 PM in the evening. As expected the connection still did not get activated.

Today (21st April 2007) I again went to the AIRTEL shop in Lajpat Nagar to find out details. But no body there could help me out. When I requested for phone numbers of some senior officers of AIRTEL they could not provide me that. Their only suggestion was to keep going back to the retailer and dealer and request them to activate my number.

I have lost all my patience with the company. My money is stuck and yet I have not been able to use the service which I was supposed to get 4 days back. The whole experience has left a bad taste.

I am considering moving to the consumer courts and TRAI

Any suggestions ?

I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life… To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

When I had graduated I had no plans of doing masters. For two years I was footloose, travelling from Nasik to Delhi to Calcutta to Delhi and Himachal in-between. I was constantly trying to find an area of work which interested me. It is at this juncture that I got to know about IRMA. After a thorough research I took a decision to invest my two years in doing this course.

When I came here I already had something’s in my mind. I had to pursue my dream, no matter what happened and yet be responsible enough to take care of my family Somehow the sector vs non sector confusion was never in my mind. Probably my late father was an inspiration. He was from a very remote village in Himachal. The nearest school was 14 kms away and he used to walk every day to the school. It was in class 9 that he decided to move away from his village as my grandfather was against his education. He wanted to prove a point which he did by graduating from IIT Kharagpur ten years down the line His story always inspired me and that is why I am chasing a dream. If my father, inspite of being from poor family could dream of getting out of the village at tender age why can’t I choose a path which is less travelled After all he had provided me with every luxury which he could not get. Thanks for making me dream dad and thank you Maa for supporting my eccentricities.

It was after his sudden death that I got acquainted with the thought that we are food for worms. Life is a short journey and there are people who will meet on the way and then we will part. It is equally important for us to find relations in such people. After all it is these relations which provide us the impetus to continue with our struggle in life. It is very much possible that many people may not even be directly linked to us but still they touch our lives. Over the past two years my life has been touched by many such people. Be it the IRMA faculty, GESS workers, staff and participants from various batches of IRMA Thank you because YOU have touched me. After certain time I may not remember many names or even faces but the common thread called IRMA will keep us together.

Being Kachra Sec gave me insights into a concept called democracy. So far I had only experienced it being a silent member. Here I participated in it. I think it was a good exercise for me. The student committees are a good simulation tool of the big wild world out there. The most important learning was how important consensus is. Sometimes we get blinded by objectives and forget the very subjectivity which resides in human spaces. However there are people who in the garb of freedom do shirk responsibilities. I still don’t know how to work with the breed of activists who can only talk. There are many lessons to be learnt and probably I will be able to find some answers.

On the lighter side

• I had the privilege of officially sitting in back benches.
• I am yet to become a SUITABLE boy.
• Engineering was only a qualification and not education and I am yet again leaving one more campus with qualification but no education..

It is at IRMA that my desire to pursue my dreams got strengthened. After IRMA I will be involved in executing two dreams. HimVani is my dream of building an institution which promotes social entrepreneurship in Himachal. The other is a dream of another IRMAn. Community Friendly Movement (CFM) is an organisation which intends to bring the power of retail to support rural artisans. I will unabashedly continue to promote both the causes and many other such things which come my way at every forum where I get to place my signatures on. I will keep coming back to many of you for support. I hope I will not be disappointed. If at any point of time I can be of assistance to you call me I will be there.

Post IRMA we will all get involved in our own lives, managing jobs, families and expectations. I sincerely think that amongst us are the future leaders of our country. I will look forward to the day when I tell my children that these who’s & who’s of the country were once part of a batch called PRM 26 at the Institute of Rural Management Anand.

In the end I can only remember the lines which Steve Jobs once said. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Your brother in arms
Varun
PS: Honeymooners are welcome to stay in Himachal. Stay will be facilitated provided I am extended an invitation.