Pedestrians Post Praja

Clarifications sought by the shop keepers and public of Mysore City about the recent encroachments removal by the Mysore City Corporation, is given as under with actual facts and legal position for the information of the public.

Q1. Why is this encroachment removal being done?

Mysore is a tourism destination and every year more than 25 lakh tourists visit the city. There is heavy pedestrian traffic in the major roads of the city throughout the year. Unfortunately, commercial establishments have encroached into the footpaths by placing their bill boards and other items, putting of temporary and semi-permanent structures like footsteps. 

It is observed that there is blatant violations of law by the shops and establishments in this regard. The Mysore City Corporation realizing the inconvenience caused to the public, intended to remove these encroachments. Apart from causing public inconvenience, these encroachments are also sending wrong signals to the public that violators of law will go scot-free and encouraging the common man to violate the law. Though the Corporation intended to remove the encroachments, the magnitude of the task deterred the Corporation as removal in one area will lead to allegations of favouritism.

Q2. Why has this been taken up now?

The encroachments should have been taken up as and when they occurred. Unfortunately, and for the reasons best known to the Corporation, it was not done. The first initiative regarding removal of encroachments was done in Jan.2008, when the Corporation authorities carried out a survey of such encroachments under the then SE, Sri Prabhakar Hemmige in coordination with MUDA and Police authorities and 18 major roads were identified . All the 18 roads were videographed and photographed and detailed maps prepared. It was planned for removal of encroachments. But, unfortunately, around this time, the Commissioner (Sri Manivannan.P) was transferred  and the new Commissioner (Sri Lingappa, KAS) appear to have not followed up the issue.

Subsequently, when the new Commissioner, Sri Raikar took charge, he intended to follow up the encroachment removal drive. Discussions were held with then Commissioner of Police, Mysore City, Dr.Parashiva Murthy.But, the then Commissioner of Police suggested to postpone it. Hence, at that time, the things stood where they were.

When the new Police Commissioner (Sri Sunil S Agarwal, IPS) took charge, on the very first day, the DC and the Commissioner, MCC had a meeting with him regarding the proposal for removal of encroachments. It was Dasara 2009 and hence it was decided to remove the encroachments after the Dasara. Unfortunately, due to floods in Northern Karnataka, the demolition exercise could not be taken up.  Hence, it was taken up now.

Q3. Was any survey done and property owners informed about the drive?

As mentioned earlier, a detailed survey was conducted as early as 2008. Detailed  photographs and videographs regarding violations. The property owners were aware of the survey   of the properties as it was done in the day time. The shopkeepers thought that the Corporation does not have the wherewithal to carry out any demolition exercise in such a huge scale and they did not pay heed to such warnings. Also, there is no requirement to issue show cause notice to the violators as the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act,1976 makes an express provision to take care of such violations without issuing show cause notice (Sec.288 d). It is pertinent to note that this section has been inserted as an amendment in the year 1986 keeping in mind the complexities involved in such removal. When there is an express provision for removal of such encroachments, the question of issuing show cause notice does not arise at all. Thus, the whole operation  is legally and morally correct. It also sends a strong signal to the citizens of the city that administration will act on violations.

Section 288-D : Commissioner may without notice remove encroachment:- Not withstanding anything contained in this Act, the Commissioner,  may without notice, cause to be removed:-

(a)    any wall, fence, rail, step, booth or other structure or fixture which is erected or set up in contravention of the provisions of Section 288-A.

(b)   any stall, chair, bench, box, ladder, bale, or any other thing, whatsoever, placed or deposited in contravention of Section 288-B.

(c)    any article, whatsoever, hawked or exposed for sale in any public place or in any public street in contravention of Section 288-C and any vehicle, package, box, board, shelf or any other thing in or on which such article is placed, or kept for the purpose of sale.

(Section 288-A:-Prohibition of structures or fixtures which cause obstruction in public streets:- No person shall except with the written permission of the Commissioner under Section 288 erect or set up any wall, fence, rail, post, step, booth or other structures or fixtures in or upon any public street or upon or over any open channel, well or tank in any street so as to form an obstruction to, or an encroachment upon or a projection over, or to occupy any portion of such street, channel, drain, well or tank)

Q4. Were the elected representatives kept informed?

Also, it is known to everybody that the Mysore City Corporation is  not a secret agency and it works under the Council. When preparations in such a massive scale was done, definitely it was known to the Council and others involved. Even the Commissioner has informed the Mayor a day before the demolition.  At the same time, it is pertinent to note that encroachment removal is a  routine duty of the officers and it does not require any approval from the Council nor from any elected body. In this regard, we did not have intention to discard any elected representatives. However, we will inform the concerned elected representatives henceforth.

Q5. Were there any excesses during the demolition operation?

The demolition operation was done after a survey with complete videograph and photograph. While carrying out the demolition, it was observed that there were more encroachments than what was noticed in the survey. And, hence, these encroachments had also to be removed and the officer in-charge of the demolition is duty bound to remove such encroachments put up illegally, whether aerial or otherwise.

Notwithstanding anything above, when such a massive exercise is done involving six major roads and about 1000 properties, there is bound to be some excess demolition  done by oversight or due to huge machines used in the demolition. In such cases, the affected person may represent to the Corporation with all supporting documents, which will be examined and necessary relief/compensation will be paid, if found true.

A structure is a legal structure only when its plan for putting up the structure including foot step, name board, etc., are approved by the Mysore City Corporation. If any structure or artificial projection is made without the written permission of the Corporation, then it is a violation under Section 288-A and D and hence it is liable to be removed. If there are any persons who has got documentary evidence of permission taken from Corporation, then, he may approach the corporation with a petition in this regard. If proved that the structure has been removed which he has got permission from the Corporation, all such cases will be examined and if proved that the demolition has been done in spite of the person showing the documents, then his case will be considered. As per the law, all the shop keepers are supposed to display the approved plan in the shop and also show it on demand. If at all they had built legally, nothing prevents them to produce documents during demolition.

Q.6 How were the roads chosen?

In the survey done earlier, 18 major roads have been taken in the Central Business District and demolition operation prioritized depending upon the pedestrian traffic of each road. Under Phase -2 and Phase-3 remaining roads will be taken up for the drive.

Q7. Will the demolition operations continue?

Yes. The balance roads of the 18 identified will be taken up and people representatives and the public are requested to extend their wholehearted cooperation to the authorities, which is aimed at removing the inconvenience to the public and towards development of the city. It is also requested that such encroachments be removed by the owners themselves.

Q8. What other roads have been taken up?

In phase-2 and 3, the following roads will be taken up.

1. Ramanuja Road
2. Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Road
3. Ramavilas Road
4. Jayaprakash Nagar Main Road
5. Shivaji Road
6. Rajendra Nagar main Road
7. Pulikeshi Road
8. Mission Hospital Road
9. Sawday Road
10. Kalidasa Road
11. Gokulam Main Road
12. Encroachments in and around Mysore Palace

If any public finds any other encroachment on the pavement, they can bring it to the notice of the undersigned. It is hereby made very clear that in these roads, only the violations under Section 288-A and D will be removed and not anything else. Only those projections encroached into the public place, footpath road will be removed. Hence, those who have encroached into public place either by footpath or by aerial projections, board, lightings, etc., are hereby directed to remove themselves to avoid any excess damage during the operation with the machines. The phase-2 and 3 will be taken up any time after 2 weeks.

Q9 . What is the message that Mysore City Corporation wants to convey?

Mysore City Corporation wants to convey a message that violations of law will not be tolerated and nobody is above law even if they are most influential, wealthiest traders. We request the public to respect law and support the Corporation in drive against encroachment and violations of law. It is done in the public interest and the interest of law.

Commissioner,

Mysore City Corporation,

Mysore.

Please click the link letter that is just above the icon view whole petition for a condensed version of the petition:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/continue-anti-encroachment-drive

The encroachment of pavements and tendency to put up hoardings and signboards protruding beyond the building line was/is rampant in Mysore.

Temporary structures with cloth/tarpaulins are initially put up on the pretext of protection from the sun and rain and later converted overnight into permanent ones with concrete structures.

The local authorities in Mysore City launched a demolition drive to clear encroachments and illegal hoardings in the main commercial avenues of the city on Sunday, Oct 25, 2009.

Some good intentioned work seems to have been kicked off on the Big10 corridor this side of the city. From what I can see, the HAL Airport Road, Varthur Road Big10 corridor is seeing some upgrades towards:

• Serious looking pavements improvements. Idea must be to prevent pedestrians from walking on the roads.
• Increase road width at some places.
• Some road engineering upgrades at few junctions - like more width to perhaps make U-turns easier, or perhaps for waiting turn-lanes. Not sure, but I am just guessing.

Good initiative. I think the goal is to make corridors better manageable, both for the buses (Big10 and others) and private vehicles. What we don't know though is if there are any immediate plans for prioritizing bus movement, things like

• Priority for buses at some signals
• Bus only lanes at select stretches

Keep watching.

Javascript is required to view this map. /* */

Private vehicles in India account for 67.5% of motorised vehicles, carry 37% of the commuters and take up 67% of the road width. Buses account for 24.5% of motorised vehicles on the road and carry around 61% commuters, taking up 38% road width.

Refer:  17% people walk in Bangalore

A book page to group together good threads of analysis/discussion on Outer Ring Road and Old Madras Road merge and de-merge chaos chaos near KR Puram Railway station. An area which could have been a multi modal transportation hub with a station, a major highway entering city center (NH4), and a major road to take people to other corners of the city (ORR) is a chaotic place and exemplifies what ails Bangalore. There are valid as well as not so valid excuses - Railways won't give land, one road is owned by NHAI, another by BDA etc, but bottomline, this place has all the ingredients

• Ovelapping jurisdictions
• No clear traffic signs, lane markings
• No pedestrian amenities, to cross the road, or walk along side them
• No facilitation for bus/bus or train/bus interchange
• Temple nearby to complicate matters

Speaking of KRPuram shouldnt this entire length be only 2 lanes wide? Why are they allowing the use of the entire pancreatic bulge before the chicken neck? There should only be as many lanes as allowable for the entire stretch. So what do the "engineers" in the BBMP think when they lay asphalt? Do they know their profession has a meaning?

Whilst the pedestrian & parking policies are welcome, it is hoped that these do not end up being implemented in isolation & removed from one another. Without addressing all street-uses at the same time, addressing a few elements in isolation will never result in better streets.

Further, efforts are bound to remain scattered & will result in nothing more than a few recommendations for sidewalk repairs or new sky bridges or some pedestrian underpasses since it would have to work "within the prevailing system", as in the past.

In my opinion, the DULT meet was nothing more than just merely scratching the surface of a vaster subject.

We were told that a bicycle policy is also in the making. What would follow next ? A bus stop policy ? A street light policy ? A storm drain policy ?

Unless we have a single policy that radically addresses all street-use issues & lays down recommendations for street specifics that include all elements, we will never get out of the messy foot tracks that we walk on or the chaotic roads that we drive over.

Though prepared with the intent to search for solutions, these policies will probably end up working at cross purposes like the various agencies had in the
past (BBMP, BWSSB, KPTCL, etc). Each will work in isolation & conflict with one another.

Above all, nobody speaks of traffic restraining measures, other than introduction of parking fees as the subject seems taboo. The parking charges recommended are also minimal (Parking rates are quoted on page-44 of the parking policy document). Restraining & discouraging traffic is perhaps the most important element in maintaining street efficiency at the optimum. Where street space is scarce, such as in Bangalore with it's huge vehicle population, this becomes even more necessary.

I believe that unless we have all elements in a single "Street Design" policy, nothing much can improve.

Such a policy must include recommendations to various agencies on how to co-ordinate for minimum disruption & best practices, cabling specifics, dos &
donts, etc. in addition to minimum pedestrian sidewalk widths as also bicycle track specifics, with other elements.

Further, far more specific recommendations for parking area requirements based on no. of dwelling units, commercial activity, etc. in new layouts must be included (The statement at the top on page-27 of the parking policy appears vague).

So there will be population increase in Bangalore like other cities, two out of three people in this world are going to be in the cities. Experts agree there is not much sense fighting this trend as ecosystems for supporting the economy are very much in the city and we need to manage this. Assuming Bangalore will grow a little faster than the national avg. we should double our population to 14 mil in maybe 35 years. We will need to increase density in the inner city to handle an economy that will serve this population. We need to put our money on a viable transport mix. Tokyo already handles this kind of traffic what lessons we can learn from Tokyo?

Time for a simcity excersice, within the confines of the ORR, how do you see the layout of the city in 2050 and what would be the salient features for Bangalore to be an example (good one) for the rest of the country (forget world)

I have been tuned out of Praja recently due to heavy workload, so not sure if attendees have posted any report on this yet. But here is my quick and try take on what I saw and heard.

There were 3 presentations in all, 1 on mobility indicators, which I missed, and then 1 each on parking policy and pedestrian facilities. Let me disappoint you by saying that I won't be typing in point by point technical notes on everything we were shown. Another post here has links to the full policy text, can talk specifics later on that post.

However, what I feel like writing about first, is the main point I usually take away from the public interactions like these. In general, the quality of feedback, questions and suggestions tends to be disappointing. I risk getting tagged as carrying the "holier than thou" attitude here, but since I rarely express such disappointment in public like this, I must clarify on what I mean here.

• Execution aspects are not questioned and quizzed as much as they should. There will be never be a unanimously acceptable, 100% popular policy. In fact, in many cases, we do not need more new policies. Any policy is only as good as the execution and enforcement system in place for it. So, ideation exercise to get a 100% perfect policy is not as much worth the time. I would rather live with a "80% there" policy, but crisp and convincing execution and enforcement mechanisms surrounding it.
• On the same theme of more than heavy focus on ideation, a lot of suggestions mentioned tend to be of obvious variety. Alright, a lot stuff that seems obvious to us is not done right in our city. But its a little premature of us to to assume that engineers and IAS officers presiding on these events are too dumb to know the obvious stuff.
• Some attendees tend to focus solely on the problems of their lane. While this is fair enough, everyone should speak for himself or herself, or about things they see everyday. I have been to meetings where some folks quizzed Mr Praveen Sood about specific road humps in their localities. Best use of time for such events is to talk at policy and execution level, and use problems on your lane as examples. For example, Murali talked privatization (a policy level suggestion), and then provided experience from his backyard (at Koramangala) as an example.
• Rhetorical ways of scoring points is another common occurrence. Te be fair and even, we tend to vent our frustrations at these events, and some of us do get carried away. The fact that our city doesn't have any formal complaints systems and process does not help either.

The point is that there is no way to control such venting and getting carried away as these events are truly open in nature. But slightly better moderation, wherein questions can be collected upfront, and plain suggestions or point-scoring can be quickly acknowledged on 1 on 1 basis, and interaction time be reserved for policy level inputs or questions could help.

As for the actual content I saw in the presentations, some things that I took away were

• Right direction of suggestions on pedestrians, but there were some examples of "in silo" thinking. For example:
  • Ideas on "reclaiming" additional road space (this would be a need at many places in Bangalore) to create pedestrian facilities weren't there
  • Pedestrian facilities better to be integrated with a standard bus stand design (extra ped amenities near them), or upcoming metro station designs, or some city-specific standard for all roads. Yes, there is talk of facilitating "lines of movements", but I didn't see clear association with modes of public transport.
• Execution wise, seems like a good idea to pick high ped volume areas and target improved amenities for them.
• From execution angle again, lot of talk that is empty without clear ideas on how to implement them. Things like "clear encroachment", "better enforcement" and all have to be taken with a pinch of salt.
• Skywalks were mentioned a lot. Audience warned out clearly enough that skywalks could be a waste. We have discussed this here as well - underpasses tend be more user-friendly, plus, regular signal crossing is a good enough ped-crossing tool in most cases.
• Essentially, it was not clear to me as to who would be the record keeper and enforcement authority for these two policies.
• Parking policy could run into land use norm controversies. Kanishka Lahiri pointed this fact out.
• Parking charges are a big deal, Das put up some numbers as well. How high should the charges be? At-market rate for the land being "rented" for parking use? Or higher than that to act as a dis-incentive.

Nit pick here or there, at the end of it, a beginning is a beginning, no point arguing about its perfection. Lets wait and watch how and what gets implemented out of the elaborate paperwork sitting almost ready now.

cheers,

SB aka Pranav

Start: 22 Aug 2009 09:30 End: 22 Aug 2009 11:30 Timezone: Asia/Calcutta Start: 22 Aug 2009 09:30 End: 22 Aug 2009 11:30 Timezone: Asia/Calcutta

The Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) workshop to discuss the draft guidelines for Parking and Pedestrian Movement has been postponed to Aug 22, Saturday.
 
It will be held between 3 pm and 5.30pm.
 
The Venue is - Institute of Town Planners, India- Karnataka Regional Chapter, No. 16, J. Millers Tank Bed Area, Thimmaiah Road cross, Bangalore - 52.
 
Request all citizens, citizen groups working on transport issues and pedestrian issues to attend.
 
The draft guidelines can be accessed at - http://www.bmlta.org/DraftGuidelines
 
Regards,

(Recd. from Janaagraha)

K.V.Pathy

Somewhat in line with these past posts (hardships of changing bus, underpass design), I notice attempts to improve pedestrian facilities around airport road/ORR interchange at Marathahalli. I don't yet see any novel ideas to cut the massive walks it takes to change direction of bus travel (close to 1 Km to walk in one case), but the attempt is to at least make that walk easier. This should be part of Big10 corridor or junction improvement plan that Abide was talking about.

What do they seem to be doing? Simple. Putting the basics in place. Nice pavements are being done from bus stands on Airport Road all the way down to Outer Ring Road. Work being done includes creating paved surface for people to walk, as well as fences to prevent spillover to the road.

Welcome to see basics being put in place. I got few cribs though. 1) Width is too narrow at places. Esp since the pavement is fenced - this should be 3 or 4 person worth width to make women, and others as well feel comfortable. 2) Would need to watch for encroachment on the pavements being redone on the side where shops are. Nice paved surfaces are always waiting to be encroached. 3) Not enough to just do the pavements. There needs to be neat signage, and walk up/down ramp to marge in with the road at points where you want pedestrians to cross old Airport Road. I am hoping this wont be missed.

In case you are lost about the area being talked about, here is an old pic:

More pictures from the area, some are over a month old.

One more:

I avoid this area during peak hours, volume of pedestrians is lot more thicker at 9 - 9.30 am, and then around 6 pm.

Background: Had an unplanned meeting with BBMP, thanks to Ashiwn/SB. Part of our initiative for better road design. This was at an hours notice on a weekday and was pretty much took half the day, so was not a good candidate for an event. Anyways, we discussed the pedestrian infrastructure, footpaths etc. We know that the quality needs improvement, and I have already documented what goes into footpath design, which I shared with BBMP folks. In general they seem appreciative and want to improve. It helps if we give specific inputs in a structured manner, rather than just rant and crib.

Footpath material: So here's where we can help. They want to do Hosur road, from Silk Board junction to Vellara as a model. This will have pedestrian and cycle tracks !.  The total width of the footpath plus cycle track on either side is currently planned around 3.5m. Of this there is cobbled stone (interlocking pavers type) on the first 1.5m, There is a drainaige of 1.4m plus an additional overhang of 0.6m totally 2m which will be joined slabs. These do not give good finish and they are planning to put a paving over this. One specific suggestion asked - any suggestion on paving material/colour which will be suitable and look good ?

Cycle track:  Am not sure we can change the course on this, but let us discuss and if there is something that makes strong sense, we can atleast try to influence. Its not as easy as lets put a cycle track  ). At this point plan is 3 lane carriageway each side, we are left with exactly 3.5m on either side.

First is its location : Should it be road - footpath - cycle track : boundary or road - cycle track - footpath : boundary. Advantage of former is cycle track is better isolated, disadvantage if shops exist on the road then there will be too much pedestrian interference. This is the current plan. Disadvantage of the latter is if the cycle track and footpath are at same level (slightly elevated by the kerb height from the road level) then the cyclist can fall off on the road. This neccistates the use of verges in between, and if we go by IRC, we need 1m on each side, a precious waste of space. Dont have that kind of space

Second is the space required: A cycle width is upto ~ 60cm. You cannot drive a cycle on a straight line, with a 20cm margin it is 1m, you need to allow at least two cycles side by side which makes it 2m. This is the minimum IRC standard for dedicated cycle track, danish standard for eg: is 2.2m. Right now we have exactly 2m, and footpath of 1.5m which is again minimum prescribed. This is not going to make cycle driving very pleasant however.

One thought: Combine cycle tracks to a single side. This will give a lot of space for cycling, part of it can be a verge barrier etc, make it pretty and nice.  Does this result in too much of cross movement ? I think we can give longitudnal parking for cycles along the track, people can walk across to shops on the other side. If they want to take cycles, they will have to walk with the cycle on the footpath on the other side. for the length from the crossing.

Alternate thought: Dont combine cycle track along with footpath. Instead put it at road level and put kerb stones as seperators from the road. Much safer for cyclists (dont fall of the kerb), plus get better seggregation. Doesnt look as good aesthically and may not be implementable in the current scheme of things - need to check

There is always the 'we can get more space from somewhere', or remove a lane etc, but what is the best that can be done in the given situation ?

I will continue to post on this blog for further thoughs/updates etc. Please feel free to give whatever thoughts you have.

BMLTA has come up with a draft pedestrian and parking policy. The vision seams to be in the right direction with emphasis is on pedestrians infrastructure including footpaths and crossings.

The parking policy talks about re-introduction of paid parking and steps to put in place a sustainable parking infrastructure (parking complexes). It also talks about secure parking spaces for cycles.

The "Policy for Pedestrian Movement in BMR" can be accessed here.
and
"Policy for Parking in BMR" can be accessed here.

The sketch below illustrates what I described previously. The shoulders of the road/s may need some widening to allow for bus bays & barricades can be used to physically separate these bus bays from other (mixed) traffic.

 

 

The traffic light signals & the stop line have to be moved well before the street shoulders & bus stop/s at all four locations to allow for sufficient separation & improve pedestrian safety, particularly along Hosur road.

If buses have to turn right under the fly-over, they would have to wait at bus stops or slightly ahead & await a green signal (Traffic lights mounted on the ramp would be visible to buses at stops).

If they were to turn left, they would have the benefit of bypassing the traffic signal waiting (Other traffic might have to wait for a green if free left is not provided).

Along Hosur road, if buses are straight bound, they can be allowed to proceed straight at ground level (adjacent flyover ramp) in both directions when the traffic light is green for right turns only (they cannot obviously proceed when lights are green for both ways straight pass along ORR). All other traffic must however, be restrained from entering the bus-only straight tracks at ground level.

This arrangement provides for safe pedestrian crossing & bus interchanges without the need to walk long distances. It also offers some basic priority measures for bus & bus travelers.

 

Caught between emptying his full bladder and avoiding the gaze of passersby, a 45-yearold construction worker suffered burn injuries after an electric shock on Vittal Mallya Road and is still fighting for life in Victoria Hospital.

Police said there was a safety fencing around the transformer but was recently removed during the road widening work. They said that the man ought to have maintained a safe distance from the transformer. For the full report that appeared in the New Indian Express, click here

The questions that arise are
1) Only if a person comes in contact with the terminals/ wires of a live transformer should he get a shock (merely coming in contact with the body of the transformer should not cause it). And, since transformer installations are required to ensure that these (terminals/ wires) are far beyond a man's reach from the ground level, how come this man received a shock? The obvious answer is that there was a current leakage, meaning that the installation was hazardous, and the safety devices should have acted to isolate it, till such time as the fault was detected and repaired. And, this did not happen!

There is a body called the 'Karnataka Electrical Inspectorate' which is required to inspect all transformer installations, including those of BESCOM, periodically, according to set parameters, to ensure that the safety devices work when faults develop. Whereas, in the case of transformer installations other than those belonging to BESCOM, the Electrical Inspectorate goes about making annual inspections fairly systematically (subject of course to the vagaries of a government agency's functioning), in the case of BESCOM installations, they are obviously not bothering with it. The reason perhaps is their both being government agencies, and therewith providing another good reason (if the many listed here are not enough) why the government should not be playing the role of the service provider and regulator simultaneously. Enough such accidents have happened in Bangalore in the recent past. Should we wait for more before the government is made to wake up to such practical solutions?

2) How does one 'maintain a safe distance from a transformer' (as the police likes to advice) when it is there right in the middle of your foot-path?

3) Why aren't there enough well-maintained public toilets? Many 'Nirmala' toilets, courtesy the Infosys Foundation, were installed all over the city. But, their maintenance has been far from satisfactory. Besides, whereas toilets should remain open till late into the night after opening early in the morning, the BBMP possibly mans it on a single-shift basis, resulting in their remaining locked when they are most required. Can't the BBMP do a simple thing like handing over the maintenance to a local eatery for an attractive concession in property tax, and thereafter only engaging in regular inspections? 

Muralidhar Rao