Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy makes slow but emphatic start

Bengaluru: The oath- taking ceremony held in the presence of several political bigwigs from across the nation, was the cynosure of all eyes. But the coalition government headed by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had an unsteady and slow start.

A month later, despite the early hiccups, the government seems to be finally settling down and what’s more aims to provide an austerity based administration.
Leading from the front, Mr  Kumaraswamy, who has advised his Cabinet colleagues not to buy new cars, is using his own personal car for official work and continues to live in his JP Nagar home instead of the government bungalow near Vidhana Soudha. He has also decided not to use private jets for official tours or for travel to other states as they reportedly charge around Rs 35 lakh to 40 lakh per trip when travelling by business classs on regular airlines would cost around Rs one lakh both for him and his entire crew.

Aware that chopper operators charge the government two or three times the usual cost of around Rs 5 to 6 lakh per day, he has said no to them as well. However, going by official sources, while these austerity measures may impress the public, they may not result in a big saving.

But the Chief Minister is doing more to cut down on expenditure such as scrapping some unproductive programmes taken up by various departments. The officers concerned have been told to justify the expenditure involved and if they fail to do so the programmes could be done away with, according to sources. 

As for the many projects in and around Bengaluru which have received exaggerated fund allocations, Mr Kumaraswamy is taking a second opinion and re-negotiating their cost, they reveal.

Unlike his first tenure, Mr Kumaraswamy, is proving more cautious in other aspects of administration too and taking stock of the ground situation in his pre-budget meetings. Going by sources, he has both long and short term plans for the state and is prioritising issues carefully.

But heading a coalition government, Mr Kumaraswamy has to consider the possible reaction of the coordination committee to every decision he takes and this could slow down implementation of projects, they point out.

While the Chief Minister has declared bravely that neither his coalition partner, the Congress, nor the BJP is interested in de-stabilising his government, he has had to contend with discontent in both his own party and the Congress over the Cabinet expansion. The rumblings continue and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah added to the challenges of the government when he insisted that it follow the budget presented by his administration a few months ago. 

The dust is then only beginning to settle after the recent electoral shake-up. Whether the months ahead will allow Mr Kumaraswamy to prove his mettle remains to be seen.

Traffic
The city, which has 74 lakh vehicles on its roads, sees another 4.5 lakh added to the number every year, leading to congestion and drivers stranded in traffc jams. Dr Ashish Verma, mobility expert and associate professor, Transportation Systems Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, welcomes Transport Minister, DC Thammanna's plan of registering cars only if their owners have parking space as he believes it will discourage people from adding to the number of private vehicles on the roads.

But he suggests that a high speed rail network must be established to shift some of the economic activity from Bengaluru to smaller cities and towns of the state. He stresses the focus must be on rail connectivity rather than road connectivity to discourage private vehicles on the roads and reduce environmental damage.

Water
The recent NITI AAYOG report has warned that Bengaluru will be one of 21 cities without groundwater by 2021 and points out that over two- thirds of rural Karnataka does not have access to drinking water. Also, it notes that despite the state being properly rain-fed, it still continues to suffer from drought. Experts lament that despite their repeated demands for better management of Karnataka’s demand for water, nothing substantial has been acheived. “The city receives enough rainfall, which if harvested properly can meet its water requirements,” says co founder of Friends of Lakes,  Ram Prasad.

Deadly potholes
With several people losing their lives on pothole-filled roads in 2017, the BBMP woke up from its slumber and started repairing them. But nothing has really changed and the civic body is now trying to fill the potholes during the monsoon.

Deputy Chief Minister, Dr G Parameshar's  "Spot a pothole, report it" campaign did not impress Bengalureans either, who trolled him on social media for failing miserably at it. Traffic experts say a lot more needs to be done on the infrastructure front, including providing good quality and durable roads as against temporary measures carried out in a hurry and causing a heavy loss to the state exchequer.

Solar-powered street lights
Bengaluru alone has 4.85 lakh Sodium Vapour Lamps and the monthly power bill for the same crosses Rs 12 crore every month. If this is the case of Bengaluru then the fate of rest of cities in the state and the total number of street lights and the amount of power generated out of it is left to anyone's assumption. Karnataka boasts of having the largest solar power park set up at a cost of Rs 16,500 crore at Pavagada in Tumkur district.

BBMP which tried to replace all the sodium lamps with the LED ones by 2019 landed it in the HC and the court directed that it cannot go ahead with the global tender without the prior permission of the court. Estimated cost of the project was Rs 560 crore where the bidding firm will be given the task of replacing sodium lamps with LED ones and maintain it for next 10 years. In return the private company would be given 75 per cent of the power dues that is saved and the civic body would benefit from a reduced power bill (reduced by 25 percent). With the matter at the court, city will no sooner have its LED lit street lights and the solar powered street lights has a long way to come.

Unscientific humps
They are all over the city, but no one seems to know the exact number of unscientific humps on its roads. Noting that the Indian Road Congress has laid down guidelines for speed- breakers, traffic experts say it is the duty of the civic body, which lays the roads,  to install them at the right spots after discussion with the traffic police. “Unfortunately, the speed breakers in the city are more back and vehicle- breakers,” laments mobility expert, Dr Ashish Verma, who believes there are other ways to force vehicles to slow down like reducing the width of the roads at various spots.

Garbage
The city generates 3,500 to 4,000 metric tonnes of garbage every day and more during festivals. While the BBMP has seven waste processing plants with a capacity to process 2,300 tonnes of garbage, they hardly function for a variety of reasons. But brand expert, Harish Bijoor says the Chief Minister’s promises on garbage disposal give room for hope.

“I Iook forward to seeing more attention being given to garbage, and cleaning up our raja kaluves as well as lesser traffic on our congested roads. The traffic jams on our roads can be cleared if the government commits to doing it," he adds.