Trip to Matheran

I visited Matheran few days back. It was my first trip to Matheran with my wife. The atmosphere and surrounding lives upto its reputation. Enjoyed the trip. still.. there are few suggestions for the Matheran Municipal Corporation and Maharashtra Government which would be great help to other visitors. Also I have few tips for the first time tourists.
Suggestions:

• Could not see any location map in Matheran, I have seen "You are here" type of Maps at many locations in Konkan, this could be big help to tourists to find various 'Point' locations
• There are some direction boards but those are not at all readable
• Mode of transport is only horses and 'Baggi' pulled by humans, which creates lot of dust and its very difficult to walk on those roads. Some provision must be made to avoid this.
• Its a very good move of not allowing vehicles at Matheran, but government can introduce some solar vehicles which can be taken on rent by tourists. This could be really good option to horses and Baggis
• Its very funny that vehicles are banned to control pollution but plastic bags and cans are not banned, though there are boards which say that, "plastic are banned and if someone spreads plastic garbage there is fine of Rs.50/- to Rs.500/- " But still every shopkeeper uses plastic bags, plastic mineral water bottles, cold drink cans etc.. which are creating non-disposable garbage at this beautiful hill station.

Tips for First time tourists:

• if its Summer, don't to Neral station to get the toy train to go to Matheran, this is not the best option. The train journey in Summer is very boring and its time consuming too..
• Instead hire a car and go to Dasturi Naka (Taxi stand of Matheran). From here you have to walk or take a horse to go to your hotel.
• Get a good pair of shoes (even ladies) because its very hard to walk in Matheran with slippers or floaters or sandals etc.. Many girls prefer fancy sandals and they cannot walk over there, and then they have to purchase some shoes over there.
• Get some scarfs to protect yourself from red dust. When a horse pass by your side it throws lot of dust.
• Don't worry about lifting your luggage, you will get many coolies over there.

Please do not carry any Plastic, if at all you have any Plastic material with you PLEASE DO NOT throw it on the hill station.

So thats all I can share with you. Keep sharing your experiences after your visit.

Pune Traffic Police

Before some time I posted a Pune traffic problem on facebook page of Pune Traffic Police and to my surprise I got reply from PTP that the complaint is forwarded to concern department. I was so amazed to see the reply in just 15 minutes.

I heard about of facebook page few days back but never visited it. Today i saw a friend posted on the PTP wall and got reply to his post, so I tried doing same and got the result.

This must continue forever, this will definitely solve (Rather reduce) many Pune Traffic Problems. Thanks to the PTP team who is doing this job. If people are getting so prompt reply and prompt people will definitely follow the traffic rules and wear helmets and seat belts.

My best wishes to PTP.
Pune Traffic Police website: http://punepolice.gov.in/traffic_branch.html
Pune Traffic Police Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pune-Traffic-Police/148036915234615

Information Technology Policy Of Maharashtra Government

Yes.. there is a policy in Government of Maharashtra(India) which has suggested certain things that would be followed.
Good thing is that government has realized that 90% of the IT business is spread across only 7 districts in India(including Pune and Mumbai), so now they want to spread this in Nasik, Aurangabad and Nagpur because these cities have that kind of potential.
The steps are:

1. To provide world class IT infrastructure to people
2. To make people computer literate
3. Computerize government procedures to maintain transparency 
4. Grant upto Rs.15lakh for institutes for setting up computer labs
5. A dedicated center will be set up as a part of Pune University to create digital library
6. A Software university will also be set up
   

There are many such points mentioned on the website, I wonder if people know about this..?

But I did not found anything about Linux & Open Source in this policy. Maharashtra Government should seriously stop promoting MS-CIT course by Microsoft and start promoting FOSS (Free and Open Source Softwares) in Eovernment and in Education too.

I look forward to see each and every district in Maharashtra to have a IT-Park. :)

Source: http://maharashtra.gov.in/english/dit/mission.php