Re: Restoring Footpaths
Post: I am living in JP Nagar for the past 24 years. I have been running between offices of Corporation, WSSB and Electricity Board ever since to lodge complaints regarding encroachment, water and electricity theft, wrong billing, broken water pipes, overloaded transformers, damaged sever pipes and manholes, digging of roads for service lines, digging of roads for various functions, inferior quality of new or repair works carried our, not clearing drain desilt material and rubble dumped on road sides and not to mention the garbage clearance. Firstly the attitude of working staff, supervisors and officers, can be summed up as atrocious. Secondly, their reaction and attention to the grievance of citizen is better described as callous. This is their heritage; I am noticing this kind of attitude since my student days. Lofty ideals conceptualized in ABIDe, action groups like Janagraha, new entity ‘Bangalore Patrol’ and ceaseless RWA efforts and now WISA a method to measure the level of urban quality of life, when put through serious concerted action should result in better utilization of hard to find financial resources. What I wonder is, who are the real functionaries? Who ever they are, if they don’t come up to satisfactory levels of integrity and effectiveness do we have some kind of contingency plan in our vision document? If the players are, the same Corporator, Engineers, Contractors and the all powerful chain of bureaucracy, then the program has to be viewed from a totally different angle. We cannot do away with them, but certainly can create rewarding situation for them to work differently. For this to happen we have to think of adding one more task force to motivate all concerned. So add one more link in the chain Sir. For example consider the issue of Footpaths. Foot paths can be restored only if the encroachment on the roadside are removed and the drains are uniformly covered, of course it should be freed of electrical poles/transformers, fast-food joints’ tables and umbrellas, dogs and garbage. To my mind, this task can only be achieved by Corporator of the Ward and none else, because he alone is the human face of the entire set of government, semi-government and private agencies. So it all comes round to the same thing whether it is footpath, water supply, electricity or any other service. Any number of rules and punishments for violators will bring the required change. Since people/residents are not good enough in identifying themselves with commoner of Namma Bengaluru, chip of the same block the Service Providers are like-wise not good enough to bring about desired improvements of the ambience for the benefit of “them”. The elite of the population should lead the life of values such as honesty, integrity and humility for the ordinary citizen of the neighborhood to emulate such styles and slowly and slowly the citizen become intolerant to apathy and unbecoming attitudes of public servants and private agencies, and then the elected representatives will get some chance to make the dream of ABIDe come true during our times only. Ladies and Gentlemen it is the behavioral attitude of the comfortable section of the upper middle class which decides finally.
