Public involvement in clean, green Bangalore a must: Official Public involvement in clean, green Bangalore a must: Official

Public involvement in clean, green Bangalore a must: Official

Deccan Herald


Lack of cleanliness is making Bangalore a “restrictive’ global City. To make the City clean, it is imperative to involve citizens to work along with the government.

Speaking at a seminar on ‘Clean Bangalore; Green Bangalore,’ former additional commissioner BMP, P K Srihari said, an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach is required to clean and green the City. “It is not the job of the Health Department alone to keep Bangalore clean. Other departments and public should come forward and take the initiative in making the drive a success,” he said.

Mr Srihari said, mud on median, kerb junctions, blackspots (where earlier public dustbins used to be kept); urination points, garbage dumps, open mouths of shoulder drains, banners, stray animals, encroached footpaths, absence of tree guards, missing cobblestones on pavements and littering were creating an “unclean” image of Bangalore.


Earlier District governor Rotary District 3190 S S Ramdas recalled the days when Bangalore was called the airconditioned City.

“Now most of it is concrete jungle with the natural lakes turned into apartment blocks,” he rued.

The seminar was a joint initiative of six Rotary clubs of South Bangalore and Project Agastya, an NGO.

It was held at the Suchitra Film Society Auditorium as part of a non-governmental initiative to drive Bangalore to a greener, cleaner future.

The first meeting was held in February, when environmental issues plaguing the City were deliberated upon and solutions discussed.

Mr Ashok Maheshwari, convener of the movement, said plans were on to make the meetings a monthly affair. “By bringing the bureaucrats, stakeholders and the public together, we debate on the problems and solutions at one forum. We highlight the initiatives taken at the government level to keep the environment clean, and later follow them up to trace the progress of implementation,” he said.

Mr Maheshwari said while the government had been supportive of the movement, it would still take a couple of months to get a clear picture on the progress of the initiatives, because of bureaucratic shuffles and transfers.