WHAT’S TO CROW ABOUT?

WHAT’S TO CROW ABOUT?
BOOST FOR THE POOR, THOUGH: MOBILE SCHOOLS, SOFTWARE TRAINING FOR YOUTH
The Times of India


For the Bangalorean, there is nothing much exciting: it is just another budget. But the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) on Friday presented the budget 2006-2007 with a flourish. There were promises galore, some from last year’s too!
However, there are some positive measures. The flagging education department boasts of a noveau initiative — a mobile school at Rs 10 lakh to popularise education among children and families of economically backward sections. There is another allocation of Rs 13 crore to bring the economically backward person on par with the urban counterparts by having computer software training from institutions like NIIT.

Also the blanket ban on hoardings which is aimed at splitting the ‘advertisement-mafia’ has this far-reaching goal: raising revenues of the BMP exponentially in the years to come. Imagine revenue from a hoarding vs revenue from a spanking new electronic digital display, what with the slew of multi-storeyed shopping malls in the city!

Roads of Bangalore, a national discussion by now, gets redressal in various forms — Rs 463 crore under zonal works, the multi-purpose engineering division gets Rs 29.95 crore. This is apart from the Karnataka Municipal Reforms Project’s World Bank-funded roads, work on which is already under way at Rs 178 crore. Special development road works get another fillip with Rs 70 crore.

Which translates to — Bangalore should have world-class roads. Dozena-dime flyovers have been announced and not a soul except the local corporator knows about it; feasibility studies have still not been initialised. Flyovers at BTM layout, Cauvery Theatre junction, Queen’s Circle junction to Shivajinagar bus-stand, Girinagar from Nagendra Block to Muneshwara Block, Siddapura Entrance, Thanisandra junction on Ring Road, Yankee factory, Cole’s Park and St John’s Road, Hebbal underpass, Hudson Circle, Vellara junction.

Twenty subways on the anvil. Mathikere bus stand, opposite Hosur Road, Peenya Dasarahalli, Devaiah Park, Airport Road to name a few.

Touted as the next big thing five years ago, these have still remained untouched — revamping and refurbishing the decades-old markets in the city. Like, remodelling of Kalasipalyam bus stand, Yediyur New market, Johnson market, Seshadripuram market, Cubbonpet market, construction of shopping complex at Mavalli, commercial complex near Pottery Town ground, Ambedkar stadium. The projects and the costs scream from the pages of the budget books but deadlines are not even specified. Special developmental works, so named for years now, get Rs 158 crore. But just what is this ‘special development work?’ Plus, only the Basavanagudi assembly constituency gets Rs 2.5 crore under this label. This is one promise that hopes to tighten revenue leakage — taking corrective action on all 410 properties of the BMP whose lease period has expired, and from this alone they stand to garner over Rs 300 crore. Like a visitor to the council said on Friday — they talk only in crores, Bangalore and the BMP must be an opulent place.

IT’S ALL IN FIGURES:
ANY ANSWERS, BMP?

Bangalore should have world-class roads flyovers, roads, revamped markets — in short, better infrastructure. Everybody agrees on that. Dozens of projects have been announced in budgets but except for the local corporator, nobody seems to know about their fate. The projects and the cost scream from the pages of the budget books, but deadlines are not even specified. Some of the dream projects are:

FLYOVERS: BTM layout, Cauvery Theatre junction, Queen’s Circle junction to Shivajinagar bus-stand, Girinagar from Nagendra Block to Muneshwara Block, Siddapura Entrance, Thanisandra junction on Ring Road, Yankee factory, Cole’s Park and St John’s Road, Hebbal underpass, Hudson Circle, Vellara junction.

SUBWAYS: Mathikere bus stand, opposite Hosur Road, Peenya Dasarahalli, Devaiah Park, Airport Road, to name a few.
OTHERS: Remodelling of Kalasipalyam bus stand, Yediyur New market, Johnson market, Seshadripuram market, Cubbonpet market, construction of shopping complex at Mavalli, commercial complex near Pottery Town ground, Ambedkar stadium.