I , Rahul Chimanbhai Mehta , am independent candidate in Ranip ward and Takker Banagar ward (14-Nov-2015) No.5

November 14, 2015 No.5

https://www.facebook.com/notes/rahul-chimanbhai-mehta-rrg/h303066-i-am-independent-candidate-for-ahmedabad-municipal-elections-in-ranip-wa/10153129458011922

I , Rahul Chimanbhai Mehta , am independent candidate in Ranip ward and Takker Banagar ward. My symbols are --- (a) Ranip ward -- Pressure Cooker ; (b) Thakker Bapanagar ward -- Battery Torch

To publicize Right to Recall , Jury System, TCP = referendum , Jury System, MRCM, wealth tax and other law-drafts, I am candidate in two wards in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation election to be held on 22-nov-2014 , sunday.

The two wards are (a) Ranip ward -- my symbol is Pressure Cooker and (b) Thakker Bapanager ward -- my symbol is Battery Torch.

This status post is my manifesto. It is lengthy. Many people ask for "short, sweet and to the point" version, and I tell them an incident my doctor friend faced. My doctor friend started explaining disease , medicine and therapies that his patient needed. And the patient after some 5 minutes said "Doctor , can you explain me in less than 2 minutes or less, what is the problem and and what is the solution ?" !! IOW, if you, a voter or an activists, consider that I am a wrong doctor, then please feel free to vote for Congress BJP or AAP or any other candidate. But please dont expect me to summarize problems and proposed solution in 2 pages of less, because it is simply dishonest. The visible and underlying problems of India, and even Ahmedabad are so huge that it isnt possible for me to explain the solutions in even 500 pages. This manifesto is about 16 pages, and I dont want to make it shorter it shorter.

Summary of Manifesto and purpose to contest Ahmedabad Municipal Elections

(1) Inform voters about better law-drafts -and how to bring them ---- the most important purpose is to convince 1000s of activists across India that they too MUST contest elections to spread information on Right to Recall law-drafts, Jury System law-drafts, referendum (TCP) law-drafts, multi-elections , wealth tax, MRCM and 10s of such law-drafts to reduce problems of India etc.

(2) Also inform voters that that these law-drafts will NEVER come by electing good people into Corporation, Assembly or Parliament, These law-drafts will come ONLY when lakhs / crores of voters in their city / district , State , India send orders to Corporators , MLAs , MPs via SMS to print these law-drafts.

(3) Immediate items for Ranip wards are --

(3.1) widen all railway crossings and railway underpass, and make 4 to 8 new railway crossings and railway underpasses.

(3.2) connect gutterlines of New Ranip area to open garnala near Subdhash Bridge RTO , and then later close that garnala

(4) Print Right to Recall City Corporator law-draft ; and also print Right to Recall Mayor law-draft by which voters of Ahmedabad can DIRECTLY replace Mayor of Ahmedabad , if the need be. All executive powers are with Mayor. If and only if citizens can replace Mayor, then and then only real development will come.

(5) Right to Recall City Education Officer --- the full procedure draft is at https://www.facebook.com/mehtarahul... . This law is needed to improve Education in Municipal Schools, and also in private schools ; And print Right to Recall AMTS Chairman --- This will improve public transportation and reduce traffic.

(6) Jury System over Municipal Staff ---- about 5% of Municipal staff is hopelessly undisciplined. Despite good salaries and perks, they take second jobs in private sector, ignore primary duties of Municipal jobs and is also corrupt. These 5% ruin reputation of remaining 95% and make their functioning difficult. The solution I propose is "Jury System over Municipal Staff". If there is a complaint against Municipal Staff, then 12 voters to 50 voters between age of 35 years and 55 years will be chosen at random from voter list of Ahmedabad City , and this Jury will decide the case. The Jurors will decide fine or expulsion of the Municipal employee.

(7) Impose property tax on vacant plots , so that land prices decrease --- the property tax rates I propose are as follow :-

(7.1) Existing rate for first 250 sqft of land and 500 sqft of construction PER PERSON . This will include

(7.2) 0.25 % of market value of land and construction MINUS electricity tax paid, minus professional tax paid minus payroll tax paid minus 20% of VAT paid minus minus 20% of service tax paid minus 20% of income tax paid

(7.3) Reduce factor 7 for commercial property to factor 5. And factor should be 2 depending of % salaries given to employees who are domicile of Gujarat.

(7.4) Rent factor for commercial / all property be made 1.

This will reduce property prices. How? The above law will force all plot / flat / office owners to rent / sell their plots / flats / offices and so prices will fall. This will increases businesses and decrease unemployment. And it will become possible to acquire land to widen roads, improve footpaths and improve traffic, And this will also reduce the prices of flat. Today, there is so much vacant land in Ahmedabad, that even of flats are made in 30% of that vacant land, then some 10 lakh familes can be given 2BHK flats !!! Once this property tax is imposed on vacant land, the prices of land will fall and flat will become available.

(8) Make land / flat ownership records public --- to create a website / DVD , where when a person can enter the name of an owner, and within minutes, the DVD or website will show ALL plots owned by that person directly or via trusts / companies / HUFs he owns will get listed along with Jantri prices and titles. Financial privacy can go to hell.

(9) Print law-drafts to reduce reservation with support of poor SC / ST / OBCs

Any leader who keeps silence on issue of reservation is a DISHONEST leader.

My stand on reservation is to print law-draft which , with support of poor SC / ST / OBCs will reduce reservation from existing 50% to say 5% , or even less. The law-draft is at https://www.facebook.com/mehtarahul... . The summary of the law-draft is as follows

(9.1) Every SC / ST / OBC will have choice --- take Rs 1000 per YEAR per PERSON or take reservation. (pls note -- it is per person, per year, NOT per family , per month).

(9.2) There are 10 crore ST in India . Say 9 crore opt for Rs 1000 per YEAR. Then reservation , as per proposed law, will reduce for SC will reduce from existing 7% to 1%.

(9.3) There are 18 crore SC in India. Say 17 crore opt for Rs 1000 per YEAR. Then reservation , as per proposed law, will reduce for SC will reduce from existing 14% to 1.4%.

(9.4) There are 50 crore OBC in India. Say 45 crore opt for Rs 1000 per YEAR. Then reservation , as per proposed law, will reduce for OBC will reduce from existing 27% to 2.7%.

(9.5) Another law-draft is to end double option. i.e. today if SC / ST / OBC is in merit, he has both options --- to take seat in merit or take seat in SC / ST / OBC category. This can be eliminated by provision which is there in Tamil Nadu since 1980s , that if SC / ST / OBC takes a seat in General, then one seat of his quota is transferred to General pool.

Why would over 80% to 95% SC , ST and OBCs accept Rs 1000 per year? Because most dont reach 12th class and so reservation offers them zero benefits. And for over 70% of SC, ST , OBC, Rs 1000 per YEAR per family member is almost 10% of their annual family income !!! So they have nothing to lose and quite a lot to gain.

So using above two law-drafts, effective reservation can be reduced from existing 49% to almost 5% or even less.

(10) Other Municipality related items

(10.1) Give names to all roads , all char-rasta and numbers of all buildings ----- USA has been having named streets and numbered buildings (i.e. all buildings on a road will have number) since 1860s !! Its time we implement that in India soon. Also, give names to all blocks in the city.

(10.2) Install water meters on ALL connections steps by step --- the connections with water meters should be given water 24 hours a day.

(10.3) Improve footpaths --- The width of footpaths must be as

(10.3.1) Road width = less than 30 feet = 25% of road width on one side, 5% on other side

(10.3.2) Road width = 30 feet to 60 feet = 4 feet to 6 feet on one side, 2 feet to 3 feet on other side, and one way for cars, two way for two wheelers. Unpaid parking only for residents. Paid parking for rest.

(10.3.3) Road width = Above 60 feet to 120 feet = 6 feet to 12 feet on one both sides and two way for all vehicles. Unpaid parking only for residents. Paid parking for rest.

(10.4) Make all parking along road parallel parking and remove slanted parking.

(10.5) Put pedestarian cross lights on all roads ; put zebra crossing at all cross roads

(10.6) Make all parking spaces on public roads paid. And 33% of payments received should be directly deposited into the accounts of voters in Ahmedabad, 33% should be given to Central Govt and 33% should be used to build parking lots and create more parking space. Parking rates should be so that less than 1% spaces remains vacant on

(10.7) Reducing indiscipline in Traffic --- impose speed limit of 35 kmhr ; at all turns, the speed limit should be 30 kmhr , no turn on red ; all traffic fines should be "hours of detention" and decided by Jurors ; no financial fines for traffic except when there is injury and repeatations

(10.8) Increase salary of corporator to Rs 80000 per month , add 2 staff allowances of Rs 12000 per month each and office allowance of Rs 20000 per month. The total cost = Rs 144,000 per month per corporator. This is needed to get good engineers and doctors to work as city Corporators. Decrease number of corporators from 192 to 48.

(10.9) Gujarat assembly has passed a law on 6-jun-2014 that Municipal Corporation can acquire land to widen roads without paying cash, and by giving only so called "Tranferable Development Rights" i.e. "additional FSI certificate" . Cancel this law, and instead implement a law that Govt can acquire land only after paying at least twice the market prices, and 4 times if the property acquired is the only property owned by the owner.

(10.10) Collect opinions of 40 lakh Ahmedabad voters via SMS , whether voters of Ahmedabad want to continue BRTS or end BRTS

(10.11) Make dog / cow hostels --- remove all dogs and other animals from streets. India is one of the only country where 1000s of people die due to dog bites. In India, some 20000 persons die due to dog bites every year, plus unreported deaths, and it is over 50% of whole world !! By using donations, Municipality can make dog hostels and remove all dogs from streets. Also, cow etc should be kept in cow hostels (panjarapole) and not on roads.

SOME DETAILS

chap-1) Informing voters about Right to Recall , Jury System , TCP .

Lets start with the most basic question of Indian politics ---- why is USA ahead of India? why are towns and cities in USA far better managed than towns and cities in India?

The most important reasons are --- because voters in USA following law-draft-sets to restrain their officers

• Right to Recall
• Jury System
• Multi-election
• Referendum

The details are at "Why has India been behind USUK ? (Q2) And why is strength ratio of India / USUK worsening everyday? " at https://www.facebook.com/mehtarahul... .

(1.1) Jury System

The Jury System reduces the problem of

(1.1.1) Judicious Nepotism

(1.1.2) Judicious Nexuses

(1.1.3) Judicious fear of favourable transfer , suspension, expulsion

(1.1.4) Judicious greed for promotion and favourable transfers

The Judicious Nepotism is when one judge favors his relative lawyers. And Judicious Nexuses is when a judge has nexus with his relative lawyer or friend lawyer or an elitemen or a criminal who has several cases in his court. Judicious fear of unfavorable transfer , suspension, expulsion is when a lower court judge gives judgement based on fear that judges in higher court will transfer him to unfavorable place or will suspend him or expel him. And so he he obeys the higher judges' orders and so the super-elitemen who have nexuses with higher judges benefit. "Judicious greed for promotion and favourable transfers" is when a judge in lower court obeys judge in higher court for greed of promotion and favourable transfers. So the super-elitemen , big lawyers etc who have nexuses with higher judges benefit.

The Jury System has no possibility of fear of transfer, suspension, expulsion as each Juror retires anyway after the case. And Jury has no greed for promotions. Now say an accused has 10 lawyers and each of them has 100 relatives. So there are 1000 citizens relatives of his lawyers. So what are chances that one of the Juror, selected from voter list of say 10,00,000 voters is relative of one of those 10 lawyers? Below 1%. And what the chances that 2 out of 12 Jurors are relatives? What are the chances that 3 out of 12 lawyers are relatives? IOW, chances of nepotism are far far less in Jury System then in judge system.

And in same way , chances of nexuses are also far far less in Jury System compared to judge system.

The details of Jury System are in chap-21 of http://rahulmehta.com/301.htm . And FB-notes are at "301.021 : RRG proposals to reduce Nepotism in Courts : Expel judges , bring in Jury" at https://facebook.com/notes/10150423... . And pls also see "303.015 : A summary of courts of India, ex-USSR, China and USA ; Indians courts are most nexused/nepotic/corrupt of ALL four " at https://facebook.com/notes/10151189... .

The Jury System , compared to judge system, does far far less bad job, of protecting small factory owners from large factory owners'' attempts to damage small factory owners using contacts at apex levels in Govt. How and why? Consider 10 large factory owners say L1 to L10, Consider 10000 small factory owners say S1 to S10000 . Say there are 25 Supreme judges SCj1 to SCj25 and 20000 Lower Court judges named LCj1 to LCj20000.

Now S1 to S10000 may or may not have nexuses with LCj1 to LC20000 , but very few of S1 to S10000 will have nexuses with SCj1 to SCj25. And L1 to L10 will have nexuses with one or more SCj1 to SCj25 , but not even 1% of LCj1 to LCj20000. But SCjs have control over LCjs. And L1 to L10, using their nexuses with SCj1 to SCj25 , will manage to force LCjs to give verdicts that will force S1 to S20000 out of business !!!

Whereas in Jury System in each case against S1 to S10000 , the 12-50 Jurors are chosen at random from voter list of lakhs of voters. And so L1 to L10 have no means to bribe or force lakhs and lakhs of Jurors scattered across the country.

So the Jury System , compared to judge system, does far far LESS BAD job, of protecting small factory owners from large factory owners'' attempts to damage small factory owners using contacts at apex levels in Govt.

Thats the reason why countries which practised Jury System always managed to make better industrial tools and weapons compared to countries which practised judge system. eg Greeks had better weapons that Egypt, Turkey, Iran, India. UK had better weapons than whole world. And USA today has far better tools as well weapons compared to whole world.

Jury System also ensures that lower staff in administration will restrain itself from corrupt / harassing behavior. Because in judge system, a complaint of corruption goes to a judge with whom most officers already have nexuses. Whereas in Jury System, the accused officer will have no nexuses over the Jurors who will decide the case. In fact, officer will not even know which Jurors will come to decide his case. So officers in countries with Jury System are less prone to corruption, and have less tendency to cause harassments.

So IMO , Jury System related law-drafts is important reason why UK, which was behind India in 950 AD , became ahead of India by 1200 AD and way ahead of India by 1600 AD. And JurySys is important reason why today USA is ahead of whole world.

(1.2) Right to Recall law-drafts

USA has Right to Recall law-drafts over almost all State / District level positions. USA has no RTR over any Federal positions, be elected or appointed. But USA does have RTR law-drafts for most positions in state / district Govts.

In many states, there are formal procedures for Right to Recall over

1. Governor, Vice-Governor

2. State Ministers

3. State Public Prosecutors

4. State Judges

5. MLAs aka Assemblymen

6. District Police Chiefs aka Sheriff

7. District Education Officer

8. District Public Prosecutors

9. District Judges

10. District \ City Mayor

11. District \ City Councillors

in many cases, recall procedures are normally laid down. In many cases, recall procedures are not stated , but via referendum , citizens can implement a recall. In many cases, officer can be unelected and appointed, and yet there are recall procedures over his head.

RTR law-drafts in USA has ensured that the apex officers do not become corrupt and do maintain an optimum level of efficiency. At least, they will try to match efficiencies of other persons who are holding similar positions in other districts/states. So say there are 2000 police chiefs in USA. And say 1% of them bring several innovations. Then sooner or later, all district police chiefs will have to implement those innovations or else chances of their recall do increase.

Further, the nodal officers also try to ensure that lower officers are non-corrupt. Because if one lower officers becomes corrupt, and if he goes on and on unpunished, then chances that more officers become corrupt increases. And if too many lower officers become corrupt , then citizens will blame him of poor supervision and chances of his recall increases. This is the main reason why all apex officers in USA do set trap on their officers if they are suspected of corruption.And lower officers also know that apex officers do set traps occasionalty. And so they almos always remain far far less corrupt than officers at corresponding positions in India and other countries which dont have Right to Recall over apex officers.

USA has RTR over most positions at State / District levels. But USA has no RTR at elected or appointed positions in Central Govt. This is the reason why Central Govt in USa is far far more corrupt than State / District Govts.

And the reason why Jury System is alive in USA is also RTR over judges, prosecutors, police chiefs, Mayor etc. And since there is no RTR in Federal Govt, Jury System in Federal Court has become very weak. So IMO Right to Recall law-drafts have played important role in make USA a far far less unproductive place than India.

(1.3) Multi-elections

In India only following persons in power structure are elected --- Loksabha MP , State MLA , City Corporator (or District / Tahsil/ Gram Panchayat Members in rural areas). PM, CM, Mayor are elected by MPs, MLAs and Corporators and not by citizens. And all officers such as police chief, district education officer, judges, prosecutors etc are all appointed and / or recruited by written exams, and then promoted by other officers / Ministers

In USA , following officials are directly elected by voters

1. President , Vice President i.e. PM , Deputy PM

2. Senator i.e. Rajsabha MP

(no other officials in Central Govt)

3. Representative i.e. Loksabha MP

4. Governor , Vice Governor i.e. CM , deputy CM

5. State MLA, member of leguslative council

6. State Public Prosecutor

7. One to three important ministers eg Agriculture Minister in Kansas

8. State Supreme Court judges i.e. our High Court judges

(varies from state to state. eg some states dont have elected judges)

9. District Police Chief aka Sheriff

10. District judges

11. District Public Prosecutors

12. District Education Officers

13. District Mayor

14. District Councilors

(varies from district to district)

IOW, a large number of positions are directly elected by citizens.

So there are more elected officials in US administration that India . This reduces power of appointed officers against citizens , and also, makes each elected officer independent of other elected officer and makes him individually accountable to citizens. Multi-elections are possible ONLY if the administrative system has RTR and also Jury Trials. Why is RTR must for multi-elections? I will explain my later statues. Pls click follow on my FB profile to get that status

Further , in India, MPs elect PM and MLAs elect CM. Now citizens do want a specific person to become PM and have dislike for other specific competitors. And "who should be made PM" is important question. So most voters decide that Mr. X should be PM, and that automatically ensured that they must vote for MP of Mr. X. IOW, voters across India are now electing only 3 persons --- PM , Cm and their Mayor.

When a few individuals are elected, the large factory oiwners , by building nexuses with those few individuals or gaining ability to pressurize those few individuals with paidmedia, manage to print law-drafts that will ensure that small factory owners suffocate. And this reduces competition in economy.

IMO, multi-election is a powerful factor why USA is more competitive. Multi-election makes it lot for difficult for large players in economy to print law-drafts that will make life of small players more difficult.In India, the large factory owners easily manage to print law-drafts that will make it difficult for small factory owners to grow. One example is GST-law-draft, excise-law-draft and so forth.

(1.4) Referendum law-drafts

Many European countries have referendum law-drafts which they use to remove "bad" law-drafts that their MPs support, and impose "good" law-drafts, that their MPs oppose. Also, referendum system works as good recall procedure. The referendum procedure also ensure that law-makers will not make outrightly defunct laws to please their elitemen or foreign elitemen.

USA doesnt have referendum at Central Govt levels, which is why US's Central Govt has gone out of control, creating massive scams in Banking, Medicine and also a massive loot in the name of "War on Drugs". Whereas USA has been having referendum system at state / district levels , and so state / district administration has been far far less corrupt.

Referendum-law-draft is useful in protecting as well as creating law-drafts for Jury System RTR, multi-elections etc. In absence of referendum law-drafts, it becomes easy for foreign elitemen to bribe / force MPs to print laws to weaken JurySys , RTR , multi-elections etc

In India, we the activists at Right to Recall Group have been supporting / publicizing TCP-law-draft (see section-1.3 of "301.001 : The Zero -- 3 line law can reduce poverty, corruption, MNC domination in 4 months " at

https://facebook.com/notes/10150422... ) , which IMO is less expensive than referendum procedures used by US-states and US-districts. and much faster. The plus or minus point of TCP over referendum-procedure used by US-states and US-states is that in TCP , yes-no given by citizens will become publicly know to all along with name and voter-id of citizens.

(1.5) Bringing these law-drafts in India

To force PM / CMs to print these law-drafts in India, we activists need to inform crores of voters about these law-drafts and we activists need to convince crores of voters to send orders to MPs / MLAs via SMS to print these law-drafts . The "strategy" to elect good persons is a highly flawed strategy

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chap-2 ) How do to bring 'good" law-draft in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and India in general ?

A doctor after examining all reports told the patient "you need exercises and need no medicines". But the patient insisted "see doctor sir, I dont have time for exercises ; so can you just give me some tablets"? At this point --- a doctor has to decide whether he wants to confine to ethics or cater his "business". An honest doctor will insist on zero tablets and insist on doing exercises. While a "practical" doctor will give medicine to the patient.

Same way, to improve the lives of Indians, it is necessary that activists spend TIME to understand law-drafts of USA / India , read proposed law-drafts , explain these law-drafts to voters and then ask voters to send orders to MPs / MLAs via SMS to print the proposed law-drafts they like. One line solutions like "worship Sonia Gandhi" , "worship Modi" or "worship Arvind Kejrival" are the tablets (goli , capsules) that do no good. The good laws will come in India ONLY after lakhs of activists and crores of citizens KNOW about the proposed good law-drafts. Without their knowledge, they will never be able to even analyse whether a candidate is good or bad.

All in all, good law-drafts will come only when lakhs and crores voters DIRECTLY send orders to MPs via SMS , and SMS containing links to DRAFTS of the laws that each citizen wants. There are no shortcuts. Merely worshiping some leader will not make us at par with Western countries.

So one of my goal in contesting elections is to convince lakhs and crores of voters that they should directly send orders to MPs / MLAs via SMS , and the SMS must have link to the law-draft that they want.

And one of my goal in contesting elections is to convince lakhs of ACTIVISTS that they should stop net-puja , social work, so called organization work, and work to DIRECTLY convince voters to directly send orders to MPs / MLAs via SMS , and the SMS must have link to the law-draft that they want. And more and more activists should content election to publicize these law-drafts.

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chap-3 ) Immediate items for Ranip wards

Ranip ward has some immediate problems , which can be easily solved.

(3.1) widen all railway crossings and railway underpass, and make 4 to 8 new railway crossings and railway underpasses. This can be done by Railways in 30 days. This will reduce the traffic problem. For this, I would work to convince voters of Ranip to send orders to MP via SMS to order Railway Minister to widen Railway crossings, widen underpass, make new railway crossing and make new underpasses.

(3.2) connect gutterlines of New Ranip area to open garnala near Subdhash Bridge RTO , and then later close that garnala. Again, this can be done in few weeks. And this will reduce sewer overflow problems of New Ranip area.

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chap-4) Print RTR Corporator and RTR Mayor law-drafts

I would work to convince voters of Ahmedabad to send orders to Corporators and MLAs via SMS to print RTR Corporator and RTR Mayor law-drafts in Gazette of Gujarat. This will vastly improve administration of Ahmedabad, and all cities / districts of India, which adopt this law-drafts.

The Right to Recall Corporator law-draft is given at https://www.facebook.com/ProposedLa... and Right to Recall Mayor law-draft is given at https://www.facebook.com/ProposedLa... . We activists need convince lakhs and crores of voters to send the above URLs to MLAs and Corporators via SMS.

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chap-5) RTR City Education Officer and RTR AMTS Chairman

The full procedure draft for Right to Recall District Education officer is at https://www.facebook.com/mehtarahulc/posts/10152255030191922 . This law is needed to improve Education in Municipal Schools, and also in private schools.; And print Right to Recall AMTS Chairman --- This will improve public transportation and reduce traffic. The law-draft is similar to RTR-DEO law-draft.

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chap-6) Jury System over Municipal Staff

About 5% of Municipal staff is hopelessly undisciplined. Despite good salaries and perks, they take second jobs in private sector, ignore primary duties of Municipal jobs and is also corrupt. These 5% staff ruin reputation of remaining 95% staff and makes their functioning difficult. How to reduce indiscipline in staff?

The solution I propose is "Jury System over Municipal Staff". If there is a complaint against Municipal Staff, then 12 voters to 50 voters between age of 35 years and 55 years will be chosen at random from voter list of Ahmedabad City , and this Jury will decide the case. The Jurors will decide fine or expulsion of the Municipal employee.

The full Jury System draft for Jury System is at https://www.facebook.com/ProposedLa... . This draft has to be signed by PM. One can write a City Corporation level draft for City Corporation Employees and pass in City Council. Unless High Court judges impose a stay order on that draft, that draft will become binding on City Municipal Officers. If HCjs impose stay order or cancel that draft, then activists will need to work to get RTR HCjs and RTR SCjs printed in the Gazette.

Without Jury System over Municipal Employees, it is IMPOSSIBLE to reduce indiscipline in Staff. And so Mayor / Corporator reduce the mess by raising salaries which sometimes makes salaries of staff twice the private sector. And Mayor / Corporator start accepting their corruption and lesser work output as norm. Later, Mayor / Corporator resort to privatization and outsourcing. The privatization of monopoly services further increases costs and enables foreign companies to take over. This had to end. And solution I propose is Jury System over Municipal Staff. The description of Jury System is given chap-1.

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chap-7) Impose property tax on vacant plots

The property tax rates I propose are as follow :-

(7.1) Existing rated for first 250 sqft of land and 500 sqft of construction PER PERSON . This will include commercial or residential. And quota for senior citizens will be double. So for a family of 5 --- husband , wife, 2 children, as a senior citizen parent, upto 1500 sqft land and 3000 sqft construction, there will be no change from existing rates.

(7.2) Above existing exemption limits , the additional tax will be 0.25 % of market value of land and construction minus electricity tax paid, minus professional tax paid minus payroll tax paid minus 20% of VAT paid minus minus 20% of service tax paid minus 20% of income tax paid minus 5% of income tax / PPF paid by employees on his salaries --- so if a property owner is using the plot or office or flat and doing any real work, then effectively tax on plot / office will be zero. But if the plots / flat is unused, the tax of 0.25% of property value will fall.

(7.3) Reduce factor 7 for commercial property to factor 3. As of now, commercial properties are taxed 7 times the residential property. My proposal reduces it to three times.

(7.4) Rent factor for commercial / all property be made 1.25 --- as of now, rented property is taxed at twice the rate. My proposal is to make the tax rate only 1.25 times.

(7.5) Remove exemptions given to empty / unused flats and offices -- as of now, empty flat isnt taxed. My proposal is to apply same tax rate on these properties.

This will reduce property prices. How? The above law will force all plot / flat / office owners to rent / sell their plots / flats / offices and so prices will fall. This will increases businesses and decrease unemployment. And it will become possible to acquire land to widen roads, improve footpaths and improve traffic, And this will also reduce the prices of flat. Today, there is so much vacant land in Ahmedabad, that even of flats are made in 30% of that vacant land, then some 10 lakh familes can be given 2BHK flats !!! Once this property tax is imposed on vacant land, the prices of land will fall and flat will become available at lower prices.

So imposing property tax on vacant plot has several plus points.

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chap-8) Make land / flat ownership records public

My proposal is to create a website / DVD , where when a user can enter the name of an owner, and within minutes, the DVD or website will show ALL the plots / flats etc owned by that person directly or via trusts / companies / HUFs he owns will get listed along with Jantri prices and titles. Financial privacy can go to hell. I repeat --- so called Financial Privacy can go to hell.

In addition, give property cards to ALL flat / office / plot owners. And responsibility of ownership records should be taken away from co-operative societies and NTCs to Govt Department under State Govt or under Municipality.

And convert all NTCs into co-operative societies after finalizing all ownership documents.

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chap-9) Print law-drafts to reduce reservation with support of poor SC / ST / OBCs

Any leader who keeps silence on issue of reservation is a DISHONEST leader.

My stand on reservation is to print law-draft which , with support of poor SC / ST / OBCs will reduce reservation from existing 50% to say 5% , or even less. The law-draft is at https://www.facebook.com/mehtarahulc/posts/10152992759916922 . The summary of the law-draft is as follows

(9.1) Every SC / ST / OBC will have choice --- take Rs 1000 per YEAR per PERSON or take reservation. (pls note -- it is per person, per year, NOT per family , per month).

(9.2) There are 10 crore ST in India . Say 9 crore opt for Rs 1000 per YEAR. Then reservation , as per proposed law, will reduce for SC will reduce from existing 7% to 1%.

(9.3) There are 18 crore SC in India. Say 17 crore opt for Rs 1000 per YEAR. Then reservation , as per proposed law, will reduce for SC will reduce from existing 14% to 1.4%.

(9.4) There are 50 crore OBC in India. Say 45 crore opt for Rs 1000 per YEAR. Then reservation , as per proposed law, will reduce for OBC will reduce from existing 27% to 2.7%.

(9.5) Another law-draft is to end double option. i.e. today if SC / ST / OBC is in merit, he has both options --- to take seat in merit or take seat in SC / ST / OBC category. This can be eliminated by provision which is there in Tamil Nadu since 1980s , that if SC / ST / OBC takes a seat in General, then one seat of his quota is transferred to General pool.

Why would over 80% to 95% SC , ST and OBCs accept Rs 1000 per year? Because most dont reach 12th class and so reservation offers them zero benefits. And for over 70% of SC, ST , OBC, Rs 1000 per YEAR per family member is almost 10% of their annual family income !!! So they have nothing to lose and quite a lot to gain.

So using above two law-drafts, effective reservation can be reduced from existing 49% to almost 5% or even less.

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chap-10) Other Municipality related items

(10.1) Give names to all roads , all char-rasta and numbers of all buildings ----- USA has been having named streets and numbered buildings (i.e. all buildings on a road will have number) since 1860s !! Its time we implement that in India soon. Also, give names to all blocks in the city.

(10.2) Install water meters on ALL connections steps by step --- the connections with water meters should be given water 24 hours a day.

(10.3) Improve footpaths --- The width of footpaths must be as

(10.3.1) Road width = less than 30 feet = 25% of road width on one side, 5% on other side

(10.3.2) Road width = 30 feet to 60 feet = 4 feet to 6 feet on one side, 2 feet to 3 feet on other side, and one way for cars, two way for two wheelers. Unpaid parking only for residents. Paid parking for rest.

(10.3.3) Road width = Above 60 feet to 120 feet = 6 feet to 12 feet on one both sides and two way for all vehicles. Unpaid parking only for residents. Paid parking for rest.

(10.4) Make all parking along road parallel parking and remove slanted parking.

(10.5) Put pedestarian cross lights on all roads ; put zebra crossing at all cross roads

(10.6) Make all parking spaces on public roads paid. And 33% of payments received should be directly deposited into the accounts of voters in Ahmedabad, 33% should be given to Central Govt and 33% should be used to build parking lots and create more parking space. Parking rates should be so that less than 1% spaces remains vacant on

(10.7) Reducing indiscipline in Traffic --- impose speed limit of 35 kmhr ; at all turns, the speed limit should be 30 kmhr , no turn on red ; all traffic fines should be "hours of detention" and decided by Jurors ; no financial fines for traffic except when there is injury and repeatations

(10.8) Increase salary of corporator to Rs 80000 per month , add 2 staff allowances of Rs 12000 per month each and office allowance of Rs 20000 per month. The total cost = Rs 144,000 per month per corporator. This is needed to get good engineers and doctors to work as city Corporators. Decrease number of corporators from 192 to 48.

(10.9) Gujarat assembly has passed a law on 6-jun-2014 that Municipal Corporation can acquire land to widen roads without paying cash, and by giving only so called "Tranferable Development Rights" i.e. "additional FSI certificate" . Cancel this law, and instead implement a law that Govt can acquire land only after paying at least twice the market prices, and 4 times if the property acquired is the only property owned by the owner.

(10.10) Collect opinions of 40 lakh Ahmedabad voters via SMS , whether voters of Ahmedabad want to continue BRTS or end BRTS

(10.11) Make dog / cow hostels --- remove all dogs and other animals from streets. India is one of the only country where 1000s of people die due to dog bites. In India, some 20000 persons die due to dog bites every year, plus unreported deaths, and it is over 50% of whole world !! By using donations, Municipality can make dog hostels and remove all dogs from streets. Also, cow etc should be kept in cow hostels (panjarapole) and not on roads.

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Above are some of the points of my Manifesto. The end goal is to make Ahmedabad as efficient as New York, the world least inefficient city. That would need a low corruption regime and the point to start is by bringing law-drafts like Right to Recall over Mayor / Corporator and Jury System over Municipal Staff. And the most importance task for activists is --- to convince voters to send orders to MPs / MLAs / Corporators via SMS, and the order should have link to the law-drafts they want to be passed.