As the city’s cup of woes overflowed this week with the BMTC bus strike and the resulting chaos on its roads, it acutely felt the absence of a minister to manage its affairs. Although its been two weeks since K.J. George stepped down as Bengaluru Development Minister, there has been no move yet to replace him, leaving civic activists wondering when the city will get the leadership it needs to tackle its poor infrastructure, dug up roads, burgeoning traffic, the garbage and monsoon floods.
If the city needed any reminder of the mess it is in, the recent strike by BMTC and KSRTC buses provided it as in the absence of public transport Bengalureans opted for their two wheelers and four wheelers, adding to the chaos on the roads. The rain only compounded the problem, throwing up more potholes and making driving in the city even more hazardous than it normally is. Unfortunately, very little seems to be going right for it of late with even the Bengaluru Development minister, K J George having to step down for reasons that had nothing to do with the city’s upkeep.
Having been accused of harassment by a senior police officer before he committed suicide, Mr George was forced to quit before he could make any real difference to the way Bengaluru is run. And with Chief Minister Siddramaiah giving every indication of keeping the post open for his colleague, who he reportedly believes will come out squeaky clean from the investigation into the police officer’s suicide, it's anybody’s guess when the city will get a minister of its own again to handle its growing garbage problem, rising pollution, dying lakes and poor roads badly in need of repair.
Some civic experts believe it may be time now to empower the mayor to do his job better and help revive the city’s sagging infrastructure. Here’s what some of them have to say:
Ashwin Mahesh, urban expert
With the resignation of minister K.J. George and with the Chief Minister away from the state’s capital, Bengaluru been left without leadership to tackle challenges of flooding in the monsoon and collapsing infrastructure. Political leadership is important, especially so in our cities, where different civic roles are distributed among several agencies, and coordination among them is difficult. The absence of political direction makes an already difficult situation, worse. But it’s not as if the city administration has done any better even when monitored by a minister.
This should remind us that progress in tackling problems does not come from leadership alone. The role that others play is hugely important too. Governments and ministers come and go but the only permanent fixtures are the people themselves. So it's important to involve the public in the city’s problem solving efforts. The ward committees need to meet regularly and function as per law and the Metropolitan Planning Committee, which has experts from the private sector, should steer the growth of the city. The boards of the BMTC, BWSSB, BESCOM and other parastatals should also have public representatives on board.
If we did this even ministers would be more effective as they could call upon a much larger assembly of problem-solvers. Without such permanent anchors, the temporary absence of a minister does not make much of a difference.
Katyayini Chamaraj, CIVIC, executive trustee
It is unfortunate that we expect a minister or legislator to deal with the affairs of a civic body. What are the corporators and mayor there for? Fundamentally, the mayor should be vested with executive power and ward committees should be formed immediately, without more excuses, now that the rules have been finalised. Core issues like bad roads, the garbage crisis, and infrastructure needs should be dealt with by corporators with assistance from ward committees and area sabha members. The ward committees should have active and concerned citizens as well as resident welfare association members on board.
When corporators are today getting away with all sorts of things in the absence of anyone to question them, ward committees will create a platform for citizens to hold them accountable. A janaspandana should be organised every month or every fortnight in each ward and officials must make sure to be present at such meetings. An action taken report should be submitted at every janaspandana on the decisions taken at the previous month's meeting.
N. S. Mukunda, founder president, CAF
With K.J. George’s resignation, the city has no one to care about the many problems dogging it. The heavy downpour of the last three days has aggravated the problems created by potholes and garbage on its roads and the steadily growing traffic. The recent BMTC and KSRTC strike only added to the misery of the people. It’s clear that we need an exclusive minister for Benglauru, who represents a city constituency in the assembly and is familiar with its problems and geography like the back of his hand.
Mr. George was not fit to be a city minister as he always catered to the lobbies pushing for a few infrastructure projects. What stopped him from pushing for a commuter train when the state had to fork out only 50 per cent of the project cost, which works out to about Rs 4,000 crore? Spread over three to five years this amount is not very big considering the revenue generated by the city. The commuter rail could be the best solution for the traffic jams on city roads and also improve connectivity hugely.
R.K. Misra, Bengaluru Blueprint Action Group
With the resignation of K.J. George, the city is once again without a minister to coordinate the work of various developmental agencies, take decisions and monitor ongoing infrastructure projects. It was only last October that Bengaluru finally got a minister, whose only responsibility and focus was its progress and upkeep. Mr George was a proactive and approachable minister. Given the multiplicity of agencies responsible for the city’s infrastructure like the BBMP, BDA, BMRDA, BWSSB and BESCOM, he held regular inter-agency meetings where long pending coordination issues were being resolved. There was a perceptible difference in the speed of decision-making and project execution.
Regular monitoring of projects was putting pressure on executing agencies to deliver quality work on time. Substantial progress was made on much delayed infrastructure projects like the PRR, elevated corridors, Metro Rail, ORR, suburban railway, solid waste management and lake rejuvenation. Finally, Bengaluru was getting much deserved attention. But the unfortunate resignation of the minister has left an administrative vacuum, which needs to be urgently filled. We hope the Chief Minister will appoint a capable and committed Bengaluru Development Minister at the earliest recognising the crucial role the city plays in the socio-economic development of the state.
Residents can demand ward panels
With ward committee rules having been finalised and published on June 22 this year, Bengalureans can now demand that the BBMP constitute them with 10 members - three women, two SC/ST members, two local association members and three other members - on board for each ward. The good news is ward committee meetings are open to the public and RWA members and civic issues can be brought to the notice of the local councillor a week before they are held to see that they are discussed. People can also make sure that the committees meet every month and display the minutes of the meetings and resolutions passed in the respective ward offices. To make doubly sure they do their job, the meetings of the committees can be videographed.
