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Abide - all the right noises

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Written By tsubba - 29 June, 2008

Bangalore governance BDA Kasturi Rangan Abide Citizen Reports Participation

#1. at yesterday's meet, the media reports that while the CM spoke on finances and the big picture, the heads of various departments spoke of issues at a much finer scale, and the members of various RWA's spoke about many nuts and bolts issues[1]. (Added later: After I have written all that I have written, I observed a curiously familiar position on sakrama, property taxes and egovernance by a name very familiar. I am 99.87% sure that our own Silkboard has found mention in that article. which means he was there. So he will defintely post his field notes. You can ignore this post.) All else apart, that these type of interactions between the netas-the babus-and the greater city praja have been hapenning on-and-off in the past few years is by itself a positive sign. it augurs well that the politicians of KA have learnt to make the right sort of noises as far as civic issues of bangalore are concerned. And the CM has promised to take this to 7 other cities. Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Bellary and Davangere city.

#2. Missing, ofcourse, in action were any local representatives because they dont exist. From what I read, this was apparently a meeting with pan city agenda - sewage systems, garbage disposal, governance, metro, mono, roads type of issues were discussed. Nobody is reported to have mentioned anything area specific. So, local representatives even if they were present, they too would prolly have given out pan bangalore ideas and opinions like the others.

#3. Dr. Ravindra made a presentation on the Dr. Kasthurirangan Committee report. It is interesting that the report is finding greater and greater mention and word is spreading. But it is curious that nobody has raised the obligatory dissenting voice from any quarter.

References:

  1. Tips from people for good governance Bangaloreans want more accountability from officials One citizen suggested local residents’ views must be obtained in case of land use change There was a complaint that BBMP does not respond to emails http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/29/stories/2008062960810400.htm
  2. Laying facts bare... It was one of the rare chances that laymen were provided to interact with the decision makers in different government departments. http://deccanherald.com/Content/Jun292008/state2008062875961.asp
  3. For a world-class city! Bangalore, dhns: The State Government has brought out a Bangalore-specific policy and would strive to make it a world class city with world class infrastructure, said Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, while inaugurating the interactive workshop on Saturday. This was promised by the BJP in its election manifesto. http://deccanherald.com/Content/Jun292008/state2008062875962.asp
  4. Govt motto: ABIDE by experts views Over 400 experts from various fields, including several residents welfare associations and civic organisations, participated in the day-long interactive workshop Agenda for Bangalore Infrastructure Development (ABIDE) , organised by the State Government, http://deccanherald.com/Content/Jun292008/state2008062875960.asp
  5. See changes in infrastructure of Bangalore in a year: Yeddyurappa ‘I have a dream to transform it into a city of global standards’ http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/29/stories/2008062954710500.htm
  6. Summits to be held in seven cities http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/29/stories/2008062954680500.htm

COMMENTS

understanding citizen participation

tsubba - 29 June, 2008 - 02:48

To understand all this, i think it is important to understand the classical constitutional framework of local bodies. i dont understand it fully, but roughly, I think it amounts corporators playing the role of intermediaries between the various decision makers and people. Can somebody point to relevant information please. Another important issue to understand: What exactly does citizen partnership mean? Are citizens partners in decision making? are citizens observors and watchdogs? are citizens augmenters? are citizens facilitators? Or do citizens provide agendas? if so what is a citizen's agenda - what is good for me, what is good for the city or what is good my group? or are the citizens supposed be all these and more - taxesshu maata and generously fund the cities indulgences, karaneshu mantri, kaaryeshu Dasa, shayaneshu rambha, nagara praja pati? does the classical framework mandate interaction between decision makers and people beyond the electoral process? to build a grade separator at a particular location do you have to consult the local people? Folks with greater experience in dealing with civic issues should help us understand what IS and OUGHT to be a realistic expectation from meets of this type.

Need for voting on decision making

Vasanth - 29 June, 2008 - 03:35

All the major decisions should be taken by voting such as Metro or Mono, decisions related to alignment, bus routing system etc.

In the state of Washington for instance to decide between Monorail and Lightrail implemented by a private company soundtransit, a major public meeting was done where both the technologies were described to public in detail, the pros and cons of each technology and its suitability and finally a voting was done to decide on which technology was to be implemented based on which light rail was decided. They similarly did for BRTS and Light rail, which was decided as BRTS convertible to light rail based on the usage.

We do need such meetings. Yesterday's meeting of CM with BBMP,BDA etc could have been opened to interested public.But, in India we have problems where in which people attend such meetings to meet top officials and get their personal things done. Somehow this needs to be controlled.

What did the previous PPP really achieve (SM Krishna's times)

s_yajaman - 29 June, 2008 - 04:16

I have been reading about how in SM Krishna's times, PPP was active and the city was great and glorious.

I am not so sure about how much was really achieved.  The Congress government came down in May 2004.  By Oct 2004/Jan 2005 things had crumbled (according to all the bigwigs at least and TOI reports).  All I saw on my visits to Bangalore then were that road got tar on them, one wretched flyover was built (Richmond Circle), ORR was done (but without a service road or setoffs).  A number of one-ways were made without thought to bus commuters and pedestrians.  I might be wrong.

If something can crumble within 6-8 months, it shows something about institution building and long term thinking.

My biggest problem with PPP is this.  Private here is corporate.  Corporate interests are usually self serving and not necessarily in the public interests (e.g. elevated road vs. Mass transit on Hosur Road).  They also come with a history of success in their ventures and hence their opinions are given a lot of importance and may not be subject to the same critical evaluation that someone else's ideas maybe.  Bad ideas get accepted quickly because they come from corporate bigwigs.

I am not that taken up by PPP in this form. 

Srivathsa

 

 

BATF

tsubba - 29 June, 2008 - 04:44

hmm... they were playing the role of coordinators between the various b* agencies mostly. work in waste management, water etc etc. also remember reading that the new look bustops was batf contribution. plus they had also done some work with junction improvements at some locations. ofcourse the famous signboards got done then i think. (dodda gowdru dug up that smk's relative had all the signboard contracts) there are ample evidences that the role of coordinator is done poorly by b* agencies and somebody has to babysit them through projects to get anything done in time. the potholed roads, i think was due to corruption at a very fundamental level. b* was not mandating standards. standards were set by contractors and b* would simply agree to it. some blessed souls dragged the palike to courts on this. the courts went hammer and tongs in a multi volume(there were something like 3 reports) ruling. b* was left kicking and crying. but they have learnt some other tricks now. has been a while since i heard anything about potholes in a while - apart from a few dilli based journalists mouthing cliches, not heard too much about asphalting issues. eega yenidru multi thousand crore projects vonly. folks at KI ofcourse also do all this. there are folks there who know the the entire process of road laying like the backside of their hands and give you fundas on what mix goes at what stage at what depth. but agree with you on the basic question and diagnosis: who could get in into BATF? what was the criteria?

bottom line

tsubba - 29 June, 2008 - 02:45

But beyond what was said and heard, what exactly does this meeting amount to? How permanent is this and how legally binding is this? Who gets to participate? The CM and the babus heard opinions, but what is it that they learnt, if anything? Is any of what was said or discussed actionable or binding? In the wake of this public meeting, will the babus and the netas hit the drawing boards and the meeting rooms? And what is the permanence of this? x months from now will the meeting be held again to take stock of what was said and what was done? All this is not all that fanciful and extraordinary at all. This is precisely the type of setup that the JNNURM is trying to build, though i am not sure if it suggests any systematic mechanisms to build this public participation beyond the town hall meeting type of setup. Meetings of this type allows people direct access to decision makers and executive body. ------------------------------

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