This BBMP election Ward 174
recorded less than 43% voting, leaving many of us who have been involved in the
elections directly or indirectly not just surprised but annoyed too.
The story of low voting percentage was
common across all BBMP Wards with very
few exceptions; looks like relentless awareness campaigns about importance of voting
had no impact on urban voters. It may be cynicism or simply not giving a damn
about a Democratic process, whatever it may be by not voting and by not
participating, voters are weakening the very foundation of our Democracy.
Anyways, as counting closed on 25th
Aug, it was clear that voters (who ever voted) of Ward 174 had given BJP yet another chance. For several years with
Corporator, MLA, MP all from BJP, both BBMP
and State Govt Governed (rather misgoverned) by BJP, nothing good happened for Ward 174 rather only got worst.
There is no doubt that INC lost Ward 174 purely due to its internal
fight and a last minute patch-up of the warring factions did not help them, BJP
just got away without being held accountable for its misrule or its bad
governance both in Ward 174 and in BBMP.
But the mandate is out, so let’s look
at the enormity of the mess that newly elected Corporator of Ward 174 has on his hands.
Roads
With over 4238 potholes of various shapes/sizes/depth on 141 kms of road length, the basic road infrastructure is crumbling
and needs major surgery. Except for repeated asphalting of roads in the IAS
Officers locality and 27th main, roads across Ward 174 have not been asphalted for over 5-10 years.
Roads have been the largest source of
corruption with multiple billing of the same stretch of asphalted road and illegal
digging of roads to lay Optic Fiber Cables (OFCs), also leading to huge revenue loss.
Traffic & Parking
Rampant, unchecked and even illegal commercialization
has lead to a huge increase in the Traffic. All the key commercial roads that connect
to different parts of Ward 174 have
turned into bottle necks. Pedestrian are suffering due to random parking and pavement
parking, leaving no space for their movement.
Safety
Basic audit will reveal that more than
50% of the 4737 streetlights are non-functional,
thereby leading to serious safety issues for commuters, women and children. Deadly
potholes and lack of streetlight is an open invitation to fatal accidents especially
for people using two-wheeler.
Garbage & SWD
One can pass on the Garbage issue as a
common problem across the City & Country, but so far there has been no effort what
so ever to create awareness or to implement segregation at source. When large
part of Ward 174 is a well planned BDA layout its criminal indeed if even segregated
Garbage is collected and dumped into the same pile.
Storm Water Drains (SWD) both the
shoulder inlets and the main Raja Kaluves are to the brim with garbage and
silt, with choking and clogging drains a few minutes of rains can flood houses
in low lying areas.
Education & Health
A look at Anganwadi will tell you the
plight of the children for the lesser privileged section of the society. Lack
of even basic facilities will only suggest that previous Corporator gave no
attention to the poorer section and left them to fend for themselves.
The Govt Schools are no better, with minimum
facilities, with not much emphasis on quality and the high profile schools not
willing to implement RTE, parents who can’t afford private schools have very
little choice but to send their children to Govt Schools.
Garbage, chocked SWDs, Pig menace, stink
from KCDC, unkempt Public spaces, using of vacant sites as Public toilets all
are leading to serious health issues cutting across all sections of the
society.
Lakes & Parks
Both Agara Lake & Iblur Lake comes
under Ward 174, but until the
citizens started a movement to save Agara Lake 3 years ago all elected representatives
had completely ignored the Lake. And once the elected representatives got involved they made a big mess, pushing STP which is not even needed and which is a BIG waste
of tax payer money, well status of Iblur Lake is less said the better.
Even though Ward 174 is blessed with 39 Parks, other than the one time tap
cutting its not been a priority for the previous Corporator and BBMP. Parks
lack basic facilities and cleaning, with some efforts of the RWAs some parks
are still in usable condition.
Play Grounds
Ward 174 has been known for its Citizen/RWAs activism,
just like snatching prey from a Tiger’s mouth few eminent Citizens went to the
court to save the Play Ground from becoming Judges Colony. But now like always elected
representatives are pushing to set-up a ‘concrete’ stadium in place of an open Play
Ground. Regularly the Play Ground is rented out (rather used) to some religious
function, and they mostly leave back a mess.
With a population of 65000 fewer Play
Grounds only mean lesser Public space and lesser opportunities for creating a
sporting atmosphere.
To conclude, Encroachments, Illegal construction are on the rise; a complete control of this menace and implementation
of law is the need of the hour.
These are just some of the key issues out of many, previous Corporator did not even bother
about Ward meetings or about setting-up a strong, effective and functioning Ward
Committee. There was not even a priority list or a Ward agenda, other than the
BIG talk of ‘Model Ward’ with zero impact on ground. Previous Corporator's interactions were limited to her party workers and the select few in the Ward,
there by ignore all the requirements in the Ward.
Is there Hope? Only time will tell, will
the newly elected Corporator be another puppet in the hands of the MLA or
will he show some spine and address the issues that Ward 174 and its Citizens are facing?
Let’s Hope, as if we have a choice :)
- Kavitha Reddy
Note: I am a Member of the Indian National
Congress, but I am sure the issues I have put out are irrespective of my
political inclination and based on facts and current situation.
