Z-Blogs

“Why don't you leave the government alone? Let them do what they want. Why interfere?" Engaging with public sentiment on the proposed elevated corridors in Bangalore recently, some people asked such questions. Let *them* do what *they* want? Why *interfere?* *Leave them alone?* This reveals an elementary misunderstanding with who we are and what India is. The elected are supposed to execute what *we* want, not what they want. 1. How do they know what we want? Due process. India and it's states have established processes for input & feedback gathering from the public for planning, decision making on large…

We have been living in Perambur, Chennai since 1975 and I recall having spent the early days of my life in a reasonably quiet and clean neighborhood. With economic development and urbanization the entire neighborhood has today transformed into a bustling area, with all sorts of problems. Individual houses have made way for new high rise apartments, gardens have been replaced with covered car parking, trees have been cut down to facilitate construction of roads, SWD’s and the foot paths are extensively encroached upon with transformers and power distribution pillars. Given the speed at which things are changing we neither…

Last year was a lot about the rains, but this year they haven't come around too much - yet. Still, we did work very hard to argue about whether or not we had fixed broken drains and yawning potholes. So will the rains smash us again, just like on the 2017 Independence Day that brought the floods to break a 115-year record? Maybe not. Last year, the North-West monsoons outstayed their welcome till their South-East cousins hammered them. This time it isn’t a panic situation of fighting guests that we did not know about. We do now know we had…

If there's a leak in the water line in your building, you'll call the plumber. You won't call the carpenter and hope that by a combination of luck, brute force, learning-on-the-job, prayer, etc. he'll somehow get the job done. But when it comes to governance, we don't use this basic filter. We put the wrong people in charge of problem solving, and endlessly debate why they should be nonetheless able to solve them. They can't. The sooner we admit it the better. Structure matters. The internal capacity of organisations makes a difference. Being alert to larger trends and learning from…

Pothole dynamics: Of risk and neglect It is a known fact that Chennai's roads are riddled with potholes, so much so that they no longer appear to be a major problem. Only a long time resident of the metropolis, who has walked and driven on the roads for years, would be aware of the inconvenience and risks.   Potholes are the result of callousness of Chennai Corporation officials. The substandard roads laid by the civic body allows stagnation and slow seepage of water into the soil. This results in wear and tear of the roads, forming potholes.   When the…

The PIL filed by Pattandur Agrahara RWA Federation, praying that the Government be directed to protect and revive the historic Pattandur Agrahara Lake, and not change the nature of the lake at any cost, came up for hearing. The court was made aware that the government has filed a case of fraud against a private encroacher of the lake area in a different bench of the court, and an interim order was issued by the bench staying a supposed land tribunal order on the basis of which the encroacher was doing so. The court has directed the state to submit…

When a Budget is presented in July, and when a significant new commitment of expenditure is made for a single purpose (as in the case of agricultural loan waivers this year), there is not much room for other things. So we must see the loan waiver itself as the significant announcement, and not ask what else is significant this year. That said, there is one thing in the Budget which I liked. The focus on the industrial development of a few districts, based on key strengths in those districts, is a potentially good idea. If it is done right, it…

Bangalore's struggles are not due to lack of expertise or new ideas. We've tried those, with only limited success. What is needed instead is faith in the right institutions and processes, and realising that until the rest of Karnataka develops, it will be next to impossible to restore and maintain the capital alone at high levels of livability. It is the prerogative of every new government to appoint its advisors, but in doing so, it must take care that the statutory bodies which have the mandate to guide development are not bypassed or diluted. Indeed, if those same advisors were…

For my second blog, I would like to write about retro reflective sign boards.  The local administration during the erstwhile DMK regime had, in the final months of their tenure, decided to change the existing concrete street signs to  retro-reflective stainless steel sign boards. In the first phase in 2011,  over 1000 important roads across Chennai  sported these boards. Months later, there was a change in the administration, when the AIADMK came to power. They suspected corruption in the  retro reflective sign boards project, and decided to paint the sign boards on the walls of houses as illustrated in the…

Congratulations to Namma Metro on completing one year of service on Phase I. Phase I has been a boon to (South-West) Bengaluru and with the addition of two new coaches to every train, it will lead to even more passengers using metro. Our gratitude to all the staff of Namma Metro for working hard to make this milestone happen. We all know that the root cause of traffic problems in Bengaluru is the massive growth and lack of corresponding investment in public transport - other big cities had multiple modes of mass public transport - local trains in Mumbai, Chennai…