Articles by Ashwin Mahesh

Thanks to some archaic thing called the Communicable Diseases Act, the government has monopoly control of a lot of public health information. I.e. if three people die of plague in your school or neighbourhood, the hospital or clinic that tried to treat and cure them is not allowed to tell anyone that they are handling dengue cases. Instead, they have to report it to BBMP as a 'suspected dengue' case, which will be verified by another fossil called the National Institute of Virology in Hyderabad, after which dengue will be confirmed. If any hospital violates this protocol, it will get…

Respected Chief Minister, I write to you with considerable sadness, that a liked and respected politician today stands accused of unlawfully obtaining a G category site from the government. It is extremely unfortunate that we have reached this moment. I have known the Minister to be a good person, and I hope this allegation is not true. I hope there is a fair and tenable explanation to rebut what is said. At the same time, I urge you to take some steps to remedy the situation that has brought us here, so that we may not come to it repeatedly…

THROUGHOUT the year it seems that the citizens and the city were at war with each other. You only had to think of a project proposed by a city agency, and instantly you could recollect how citizens fought against the project. Equally, whenever citizens mooted something the the city should take up - bike lanes, bus priority, better footpaths - it seemed like the entire establishment was pitted against them.  To me, this is the greatest warning before us. All over the world the evidence is now compelling, that cities that actively involve their citizens in decisions are doing much…

The arrest of Katta Jagadish Naidu, ward councillor from Vasanthnagar, by the Lokayukta last week is a milestone; some years from now we will look back on this as a key moment in the emergence of a new politics in the city. Already one other corporator is in the dock on similar grounds, but that was - fortunately for him - before the Lokayukta acquired new biceps. Katta Jr. faces an altogether different challenge. The politics of the city and the state have revolved around 'land' and its development for many years now. Mining, akrama, notification and denotification - these…

The first trains on the Metro are about to run in the next six to nine months, so this is a good time to ensure that a few other steps are taken to make the new infrastructure more effective. This is particularly because the world over, Metro systems are usually not financially viable, and this has to be overcome by some tie-in arrangement in the real estate market, through capital grants from government and through other control measures that benefit the transit system.Bangalore Metro is no different. Over the course of a decade and more, the state has been willing…

I spent sometime during the past week reading about a number of candidates in various election wards of BBMP. I have got email from some of them, and sms-es from some others. I've watched them walk by on the streets in my neighbourhood and in other areas. I've been reading the daily news reports about the elections that every paper is now carrying. I've seen the profiles posted on websites, including the one I moderate. And occasionally, I've watched a few minutes of campaign coverage and talk shows on TV.I encourage you to do all this too, because there's something…

Watching the Shiv Sena's latest threats to non-Maharashtrians in Bombay, I'm sure a lot of people in various other metropolitan cities are thinking - could it happen here? Could the xenophobia that has characterised the politics of some groups in some parts of the country take hold everywhere? And how about Bangalore itself?This question is interesting for two reasons. One is the usual politics of 'us' and 'them' around which endless commentary has been written.On the other side of this fence too, the noises are understandable. Rahul Gandhi has been ticking off the Shiv Sena quite publicly on its stance,…

In every election, it has become standard to observe that the quality of our political leadership and governance is suffering because the educated, urban middle class does not turn up to vote. Now that we have another election before us - the BBMP Council- it may be worth asking, why is this, and how can this be changed?First, some clarification. While the overall voting percentage numbers certainly bear out the apathy of the middle class, there is still a section of this group that does turn out vote, in election after election.The more pertinent question, therefore, may be: "why do…

A few days ago, I visited the 158-acre Beggars' Rehabilitation Colony off Magadi Road, at the intersection of Ring Road, along with officials of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) (which owns the facility) and BDA (to whom the land is now being transferred, at the direction of the Chief Minister). BDA is keen to develop the area, quite nicely located at the junction of the Outer Ring Road and Magadi Road, into a township, and also to ensure some public good outcomes using a portion of the land (perhaps, for a hospital, a man-made lake, a bus terminal for BMTC,…

One of the things that strikes me repeatedly, as I've been looking at traffic issues, is how there are some things that would simply not be apparent to the regular road user. Getting those things fixed will be critical, going forward. And a good deal of our investment of attention and effort should focus on such things. Here are just two challenges that BMTC, our bus service provider has to contend with, that I would not have imagined before I starting looking at their operations.1. An under supply of depots: For many layouts that have come up in the last…