ABIDe’s Watchword: Decentralize

ABIDe’s Watchword: Decentralize
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Reason and will, to crack the chaotic urban maze. That’s the formula Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Rajya Sabha MP and president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), is adopting to reverse the Bangalore development process, for the better.
The MP — who is also convener of the chief minister’s ABIDe (Agenda for Bangalore Infrastructure Development) task force — chooses to zero in on the results expected from the government first and then, mobilize a concerted, integrated effort towards achieving those results. The process is internally pegged to the concept of decentralization and accountability in the delivery of services.
Detailing the progress of Plan Bengaluru 2020, the vision statement of the ABIDe task force, in an exclusive interaction at The Times of India office on Tuesday, he said the task force proposed to bring about a critical shift in the focus of development in Bangalore: from project to consumer.
“Let’s look at a passenger who takes the Indian Railway service to enter the city. He then takes a BMTC service to reach the Metro station. After the Metro ride, he again takes a BMTC service to reach his home. These are three different agencies or projects, functioning independently. The alternative is in bringing the focus back on the passenger’s convenience and integrating different transportation modes at the planning level itself,’’ he says.
A clearer, solution-based approach to development is the way forward. Bangalore figures last, among Indian cities, when it comes to per capita tax collection. When the desired infrastructure standards are international, there’s an urgent need to improve the tax compliance and enforcement. Towards this, ABIDe is chalking out measures like computerization of RTOs.
The absence of a comprehensive plan for the urban poor is another aspect that ABIDe is looking into. “Slum re-development, in its present format, involves a callous approach of relocation. The focus should be on developing the slums on the same locations, with better amenities,’’ says the MP.
The ABIDe task force includes MP Ananth Kumar, transport minister R Ashok, former chief secretary A Ravindra, BBMP commissioner S Subramanya, city police commissioner Shankar Bidari and Janaagraha founder Ramesh Ramanathan. ABIDe does a review on the progress of decisions made and releases a progress report, every 100 days.
THE PLAN BENGALURU 2020
Water, sanitation, roads, traffic, transportation infrastructure, urban poor, power, policing, city government schools and colleges, heritage and culture, environment, citizen-centric governance, tourism and leisure, enforcement of law, airports and railway stations.