Save Bangalore

Save Bangalore
TN Ninan
Business Standard

First it was the Bangalore Forum for IT, with several MNCs among its members, which decided to boycott the state’s premier annual IT show, Bangalore IT.in, to protest against the appalling condition of the city’s infrastructure.

Now it is the turn of the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce, whose members are mostly local companies, to join in the boycott.

This could not have come at a worse time for the state government, which is seeking to rebrand the annual event, earlier called Bangalore IT.com, into a national one.

The immediate reaction of Chief Minister Dharam Singh has been to call a meeting of CEOs for ideas on what to do. But he did the same thing in response to earlier protests and clearly seems unable to deliver.

Meanwhile, conditions in the city get from bad to worse. Earlier, the main complaint was traffic jams, now it is waterlogging and attendant problems because of the city’s inability to cope with anything more intense than a normal monsoon. Its citizens, many of whom man global companies, have now been reduced to pleading that at least the potholes be filled up.

The city’s problems did not begin with the present government, in power for 16 months now. The primary cause is the inability of a city, till a decade ago quite small and genteel, to cope with phenomenal growth. Current long-term responses seem along right lines.

A draft comprehensive development plan, which used the latest mapping techniques and international help, has just been published for public consultation. Once finalised, it can provide the framework for more orderly growth. But earlier plans have come and gone and greed and incompetence have rendered them mostly paper exercises.

Besides, even if a sensible plan is henceforth followed, it will only prevent future mistakes. Something needs to be done here and now to mitigate the unbearable consequences of past mistakes. But the present government is letting things drift and deteriorate at an alarming rate.

In contrast, the previous government of S M Krishna put in place innovative solutions, like a framework for public-private partnership, and improved things a little. Successive opinion polls had established this.

This is ironic as the one-point agenda of the father figure of the present Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government, former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, has been to debunk the legacy of Mr Krishna, whom he considers his bete noire.

Bangalore’s problem is that its fate is linked to the competence or otherwise of the state government of the day. Effective municipal powers rest with a commissioner whereas purse strings are controlled by the state government and a plethora of committees manned by councillors with the attitude and vision of small-time politicians.

Heading this structure is a mayor without powers, who holds office for just a year and consequently is neither known nor respected by the citizens.

Bangalore, as also Mumbai, which has been in the limelight because of its non-functioning municipal administration, needs a system of governance in which a mayor, at the head of a council, has both power and responsibility and is around for five years to make a difference.

Once that is done, Bangalore should be able to attract better politicians to take charge of it. Thereafter, raising funds under different models of public-private partnership to invest in the city’s infrastructure should not be a problem.