Articles by Ashwin Mahesh

As long as we allow two systems of sale of water - one through pipes and another through tankers - we can never have affordability, equity, reliability, or any of the other things we associate with this basic human need. The water tanker business is nothing more than a mafia, which exploits a public resource for private gain. We absolutely have to shut it down.All water supply must be by the government only. If there has to be tanker supply in un-piped areas then let the government run those tankers. And let there be uniform pricing of water, regardless of…

Each year, for the past few years the Namma Bengaluru Foundation has been honouring those who serve the city in different ways, by recognising them thorugh its annual awards. I've been a jury member all four years, and during this time, I have been fortunate to learn about the work of so many inspiring Bengalureans, and occasionally to be able to work with them too. Namma Bengaluru Awards Jury. Pic courtesy: NBA The first year we received a few thousand applications. The second year the number grew to 14,000 and stayed at that level for the third year too. This…

In a democracy, the minimum that we should be able to expect is HOLDING ELECTIONS ON TIME. But it seems now that even this basic threshold is not guaranteed in Karnataka. Yesterday, the legislature passed a law - with all parties agreeing - that the State Election Commission cannot schedule elections to local bodies (like BBMP and other city governments) without its 'consent'. I.e. if the state government feels the time is not right for holding elections, that's the way it will be. The Election Commission of India controls only Parliament and Assembly elections, and those are constitutionally anchored. Elections…

It's a very unusual development in the annals of democracy in India - for the first time, a deliberate political action group, with a specific agenda to be pursued through its activities, is being formed — the Bangalore Political Action CommitteePACs are nothing new around the world. In the US alone, there are thousands of PACs, each committed to its agenda. In India so far, we've had industry associations, which are in some ways PACs, but apart from this there aren't very many. The usual organising themes for PACs - labour, environment, health, education, etc. - have not year coalesced…

I went on a 3 hour trip with a few industry leaders as well as BBMP officials yesterday, looking at some of the 'trail' of waste in the city. The idea was to get buy-in from all the chambers of industry to start doing whatever they can within their own campuses and also understand the economics of the waste trail. Three places that we visited all have important learnings to offer.The biogas plant at IIM, Bangalore substitutes for 16 cylinders of LPG each day, out of the wet waste collected on campus itself. It cost about 10 lakhs to set…

Anyone watching the EWS evictions in Ejipura is bound to feel heartbroken for the victims. But this is a tragedy that need not have arisen at all. We allow these problems to build up right in front of our eyes, knowing fully well that they will blow up one day. That has to stop. It is not easy, and it is requires long, dedicated attention to a STRATEGY of fixing the housing problem. There is simply no other way.Here's my letter to the CM today, asking him to put such a strategy in place, starting with the Budget he wants…

What can we do to make sure the kind of tragedy that we are witnessing in Ejipura does not come back to haunt us again and again? Nothing short of a comprehensive review of the housing market will suffice, because there is a fundamental problem - the cost of land is so high that too many people are priced out of home-buying. Here are some things we can explore to overcome that.1. Can the impact of 'land value' in housing projects be reduced?The biggest stumbling block in cities is the scarcity of good quality land. As a result, land prices are…

The Indian Institute of Public Administration is holding a seminar on the reconstitution of the municipal area into two or more cities. If implemented, that would end the experiment of consolidating all the cities in the area into one single BBMP. I'm speaking at the event later this morning ... here's the gist of what I plan to say.In December 2005, when the government pushed through the creation of BBMP, Subbu Vincent and I wrote an editorial, titled "The sum of broken parts" arguing that this was a bad move. I predicted then that we would be forced to abandon…

The ruckus over the formation of ward committees is exposing the failures of city governance in a big way, and pointing to its main cause - the exclusion of citizens from decision-making. But that's not all. It is also exposing the hollowness of the legislative space, which also needs to be urgently fixed.I am told that the Bommanahalli MLA opposes the formation of ward committees. I don't want to pick on one person, but let's look at the facts objectively. No BJP MLA should ever say that they're against ward committees. Why? Because they were the ones who voted for…

Background- According to our estimates (made through actual door-to-door surveys) there is no more than 3200 tonnes of waste collected in the city each day. Of this, about 1000 tonnes at the most is wet waste, and the remainder is dry. A small portion (5-10%) is electronic and bio waste.- Current technologies permit most, if not all, of the wet waste to be converted into compost or energy. Composting can be done at different scales - in the home, in neighbourhoods, and in large zones.- A very large chunk of the dry waste can be recycled, even profitably. The recycling…