BBMP's misplaced priorities
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Written By murali772 - 16 December, 2014
Bangalore
Corruption
Citizen Reports
accountability
walkability
Pedestrian Infrastructure
footpaths
Waste of money
financial prudence
carelessness
negligence
On the one hand, we have been reading repeatedly in the press that the BBMP is broke, and not in a oposition to pay contractors' bills in hundreds/ thousands of crores. On the other, is this splurge on Eurocon tiles for the footpaths in 3rd block, Koramangala (near Embassy Tranquil).
Well, nobody would have grudged them that, if at least the tiles had been laid properly. The pictures tell their own tale.
A friend, who drives past the road regularly, tells me that the pavements have now become the ideal parking spaces for cars. So, was that the intent, to begin with? The car tyres don't complain about the uneven surfaces, or a few broken tiles, here or there too, I guess.
Muralidhar Rao
The next PIL against BBMP shall be as regards the maintenance of streetlights.
The Karnataka government has come out with a poorly drafted Right to Recall Sarpanch law. In my opinion. right to recall should have been extended to the municipality level as well.
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) contractors gheraoed Commissioner M Lakshminarayana on Monday for not clearing their bills for several months. While some abused the Commissioner, others tried to manhandle him, forcing the police to intervene. - - - - A contractor said, “The bills of those who take a Letter of Credit from influential people are are cleared. But we have loans to repay.” - - - - Another contractor blamed councillors. “Every time, BBMP authorities assure us that they will release funds. But we are fed up as no money has been released,” he said.
For the full text of the report in the New Indian Express, click
here.
In the opening post, I had mentioned about news reports of the BBMP being broke. So, this the latest in the almost once-in-a-month series. And, the "influential people" talk, apparently points to how works such as reported in the opening post get done. Even with matters reaching the stage of the Commissioner, none less, being almost manhandled, we never seem to learn the lessons. Some rare thick skin it calls for!
This extravaganza, obviously the brain-child of the local MLA (more on him is accessible here) came in for some harsh criticism (and deservedly too) from prominent citizens of the local community, on the "SaveKoramangala YahooGroup". Some of it is reproduced below:
M1: Here is a brilliant 4 lane highway. Its in Koramangala. Its built to international standards - its 10 inches thick, 35 ft wide and half a Kilometre long. Crores have been spent. There is one small problem. It leads to nowhere. No vehicles use it.
The land value in that area is 18000 Rs per sq foot. The land available there is close to 3.5 Acres approx. It's now populated entirely by a pack of stray dogs and pups who are defecating all over the International Quality Road. The pups are looking for some tender human flesh to sink their teeth into as a substitute for a teething ring. This puts off even pedestrians from using this highway as a thoroughfare -- not to mention that avoiding the dog poop lying all around isn't very pleasant.
The workers there don't seem to have much to do. They are busy feeding the above mentioned dogs and pups and the pack is growing steadily emboldened by the day.
There is enough space on the concrete road to park upto 150 cars without obstructing "traffic". There is a huge amount of space on either side set aside for "gardens". The space for these gardens can be used for doing the entire garbage transfer in Koramangala.
M2: and the real tragedy? Most of us - with a few exceptions will in the next elections go out and vote for someone who will propagate the same. some of us will even campaign for these people!!!
In Koramangala, we have the most vibrant of RWA and Civil Society groups, that's the envy of the rest of the city, and whose members are in constant touch with the MLA too. All the same, he does not appear to have taken any of them into confidence while planning and going about this work. The conclusions are obvious.
Now that BBMP is being superseeded, when would somebody be avaiable to answer your very vaild questions?
I have taken a few photos this monday, and here are the examples how owners are thinking of these footpaths as their extended garage.
Deepak
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