24 hours ain’t enough for Dilip Rau

24 hours ain’t enough for Dilip Rau



The new BMP administrator in conversation with Smitha Rao about his journey so far and his plans for the future
The Times of India


Bangalore: From a behind-the-scenes bureaucrat, Dilip Rau has been in the citizen’s glare, ever since he took over as administrator of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP). The assignment couldn’t be timed better — just after the term of the 100 corporators ended and prior to the great embrace of Greater Bangalore. The 1972-batch IAS veteran, now hears out details of pot-holes at Peenya. Excerpts from an interview:
A month-and-a-half as administrator, you’ve been in the public eye often, how has the going been?
The title and work experience as administrator has been interesting. I’m used to public interactions but this has tremendous possibilities. The grievance meetings that I hold has received good response. People come with a wide range of problems, mostly relating to basic amenities or construction violations. I realised that they would narrate these problems to the corporators, who in turn would repeat it to the same officials.
So do you think you’re filling in some void left behind by 100 corporators/wards?
I wouldn’t say I’m a complete substitute, I cannot really replace 100 elected people. But I certainly don’t have any difficulty in understanding the problems people face at grass-roots. My main task has been to motivate employees at lower-levels to perform. Exerting pressure on them might yield results, only in the short-term.
We should evolve a system where the junior engineer himself, while walking through his ward realises that the footpath need to be re-structured, the road needs upgradation.
Why should any corporator or official have to instruct them?
You still retain your other assignment as principal secretary, power department. And the administrator’s job is a time-consuming one. How do you strike the balance?
At a recent cabinet meeting, we discussed the power sector as we needed to check if there was a power crisis in the state. Some policy issues need to be addressed there. Whereas here, at BMP, time is never enough. I can be here 24 hours and it will still not be adequate! I’ve been managing fine this far, obviously I’m devoting more time at BMP.
Apart from infrastructure problems, by-law violations and blatant illegal constructions have become the norm, an illegal industry. How can administrator curtail this problem?
I am not in favour of large-scale demolitions or sealings across the city. Yes, violations have mushroomed beyond control. At this stage, prevention is more necessary than cure. My problem is with people who obtain sanctions for residential purposes and use it commercially, that’s when an entire neighbourhood is affected. In that case some demolitions may be necessary.
Hitherto when any project was delayed inordinately, BMP’s famous excuse was — political interference, corporators causing problems. Now with no corporators, why are projects still not progressing?
This is exactly what I tell personnel here, that they will be exposed. I told them that if the results don’t show then they would be proved incompetent. Yes, I see civic work delayed regularly. For instance, the KMRP (Karnataka Municipal Reform Project) roads taken up under the aegis of the World Bank. The roads were supposed to be ready months ago.
All the work was entrusted to a single contractor, who is causing the delay. So I asked the commissioner to tell this contractor that he would be black-listed through the state, for projects in other sectors as well. There have also been delays in preparing the estimates. The roads should be ready prior to the monsoon.
Infrastructure and Bangalore: so many brave decongestion projects planned by consecutive governments, very few see the light of day. Where is the problem and the solution?
There has never been any proper planning, action should have been taken many years ago. There is also very little attempt to have a planned road network. Ideally, we need a grid of east-west corridor, north-south corridor. Because we don’t have something so basic, we now need elevated roads, which are terribly expensive and spoil the aesthetics of the city. A possible solution is decongesting arterial roads by not having clusters and avoid using interior residential roads.
Another logistical problem is that projects costing over Rs 2 crore need to go to the government for approvals. This causes tremendous delay. Earlier the thinking was that the BMP would spend it on exotic projects, that’s not the case now.