Governance

Sanjaynagar Main Road is a key commercial road which has a lot of shops and is the lifeline of commerce for the wards 18, 19, 20 and 35. It has been found that the road has no footpath/sidewalk. It has only drain covers on which people walk. These drain covers are inadequate to provide a safe and continous walking experience. It is unsafe for people especially senior citizens and children. Many people have been hurt on this road by being forced to walk on the road and interfere with the traffic or falling because of bad quality of the surface.…

We hadn't expected to receive 68 entries for this topic, in a city where half the people don't know what a mayor can do. Our contest, 'If I were the Bengaluru Mayor' became an all-time hit, with submissions overflowing with ideas! There were 54 English entries, and 14 Kannada entries. We read them again and again, and shortlisted 10 English entries and 5 Kannada entries for the judges to decide. The judges included Manjula Sridhar, an entrepreneur, Harish Narsappa from Daksh, Yatish Kumar from Prajavani, Rasheed Kappan from Deccan Herald and Prakash Belawadi of Suchitra Film Society. The winners were:…

On a sunny afternoon in October, a herd of cattle nonchalantly crossed the Grand Southern Trunk Road at Alandur, posing a significant danger to the speeding vehicles on this highway. Diversions and minor collisions among bikers held up traffic here for about ten minutes. A few weeks later, a similar situation was witnessed on Jawaharlal Nehru Road in Koyambedu, where a rider fell as he tried to steer his vehicle away due to the sudden appearance of some cows on the road. The situation is similar in most suburbs, where stray cattle literally rest in the middle of the roads…

ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಸೌಲಭ್ಯದ ಸುವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯೇ ಸುಂದರ ನಗರದ ಆಧಾರ. ಸಿಲಿಕಾನ್ ‌ಸಿಟಿ, ಉದ್ಯಾನನಗರಿ, ಐಟಿ-ಸಿಟಿ ಎಂದೆಲ್ಲ‌ ಕರೆಯಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಪ್ರತಿ ನಿತ್ಯ ವ್ಯಾಪ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ವಿಸ್ತರಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಲೇ ಸಾಗುತ್ತಿರುವ ನಗರ. ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರತಿ ಸೂರ್ಯೋದಯ ಹಾಗೂ ಸೂರ್ಯಾಸ್ತ ಗಳು ಕೂಡಾ ಹೊಸ-ಹೊಸ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ, ಬದಲಾವಣೆ ಹಾಗೂ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆಗೆ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿಯಾಗುತ್ತವೆ. ಪ್ರತಿನಿತ್ಯ ವ್ಯವಹಾರ, ಉದ್ಯೋಗ, ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ, ಆರೋಗ್ಯ - ಹೀಗೆ ನಾನಾ ಉದ್ದೇಶಗಳಿಗಾಗಿ ಸಾವಿರಾರು ಕನಸುಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊತ್ತು ನಮ್ಮ ರಾಜ್ಯದ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗಳಿಂದ ಆರಂಭಿಸಿ ದೂರದ ದೇಶದ ಸಾವಿರಾರು ಜನರು ಆಗಮಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಹೀಗೆ ಪ್ರತಿನಿತ್ಯ ಹೊಸ ಬದುಕು ಕಟ್ಟುವ ಸಾವಿರಾರು ಜನರಿಂದ ನಗರದ ಆಡಳಿತ, ಸುವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಹಾಗೂ ಸೌಲಭ್ಯ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಕೂಡಾ ದೊಡ್ಡ ಸವಾಲಾಗಿ ಪರಿಣಮಿಸುತ್ತಿದೆ. ನಗರದಲ್ಲಿನ ಲಕ್ಷಾಂತರ ಮನೆಗಳು, ದಶಲಕ್ಷ ಲೀಟರನಷ್ಟು ನೀರಿನ‌ ಅಗತ್ಯ, ಸ್ವಚ್ಚತೆ, ಕಸದ ನಿರ್ವಹಣೆ, ರಾಜಕಾಲುವೆಗಳು ಹಾಗೂ ಚರಂಡಿಗಳ‌ ನಿರ್ವಹಣೆ ನಗರದ ಆಡಳಿತ ಪಾಲಿಗಿರುವ ಬಹುದೊಡ್ಡ ಸವಾಲು. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ ಈ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗಳನ್ನು ಬಗೆಹರಿಸಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಬದುಕುತ್ತಿರುವ ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಬ್ಬ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯೂ ನಗರದ ಪ್ರಥಮ‌ಪ್ರಜೆ ಮೇಯರ್…

ನಿಮ್ಮೂರಿಗೆ ಈ ಹೆಸರು ಯಾಕೆ ಬಂತಂತೆ ಅಂತ ಪ್ರಪಂಚದ ಯಾರನ್ನೇ ಕೇಳಿ... ಒಂದು ಸೊಗಸಾದ ಕತೆ ಹೇಳ್ತಾರೆ. ರೋಚಕ ಘಟನೆ ಹೇಳ್ತಾರೆ. ಆದ್ರೆ ನಮ್ಮೂರಿಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಆ ಭಾಗ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲ. ಅದೆಂತದೋ ಕಾಳು ಬೇಯ್ಸಿರೋ ಅಜ್ಜಿಯ ಕತೆನ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರನ್ನೋ ಬಿನ್ನಾಣಗಿತ್ತಿಗೆ ತಗಲ್ಹಾಕಿದಾರೆ. ನಿಜ ಹೇಳ್ತೀನಿ... ಬೆಡಗು ಅನ್ನೋ ಶಬ್ದದಿಂದಲೇ ನಮ್ಮೂರಿಗೆ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಅನ್ನೋ ಹೆಸರು ಬಂದಿದೆ. ಬೆಡಗಿನೂರು - ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು…  ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಹುಟ್ಟೋಕೆ ಜನ್ಮಾಂತರದ ಪುಣ್ಯಫಲವಿರಬೇಕು.ಅಲ್ಪ-ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಪುಣ್ಯ ಮಾಡಿದ್ರೆ ಕೊನೇಪಕ್ಷ ಇಲ್ಲಿನ ನಾಗರಿಕನಾಗಬಹುದು. ಇನ್ನು ಈ ಭಾಗ್ಯದೂರಿನ ನಗರಪಾಲಕ ಅಥವಾ ಮೇಯರ್ ಆಗಲಿಕ್ಕೆ ಪುಣ್ಯ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸಾಲದು.. ಯೋಗ್ಯತೆ, ಅರ್ಹತೆ, ದೂರದೃಷ್ಟಿ, ನಿಸ್ವಾರ್ಥತೆ, ನಾಗರಿಕಪ್ರಜ್ಞೆ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಇರಲೇಬೇಕು. ಈ ಎಲ್ಲ ಗುಣಗಳೂ ನನ್ನಲ್ಲೇ ಇವೆಯಲ್ಲ.. ನಾನ್ಯಾಕೆ ಒಂದು ಕೈ ನೋಡ್ಬಾರ್ದು ಅನ್ನೋದು ನನ್ನ ಲೆಕ್ಕಾಚಾರ. ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಅಂದ್ರೆ ಅವಕಾಶಗಳ ನಗರ. ಜೀವನ ಕಟ್ಟಿಕೊಂಡು ನೆಮ್ಮದಿಯಾಗಿ ಬಾಳಬೇಕು ಅನ್ನುವ ಸ್ವಾಭಿಮಾನಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಹೇಳಿ ಮಾಡಿಸಿದ ಜಾಗವಿದು. ಆದ್ರೆ ಈ ಸ್ವಾಭಿಮಾನಿಗಳು ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸುವ ಕಸ ನಮ್ಮ ನಗರದ…

It’s clear we grew up reading about the kings of yore, who planted trees, dug wells and laid roads. That is indeed what we expect from our current crop of leaders. Thank you all for an overwhelming response to the contest. We know the Mayor has limited powers, yet we adopted the theme, to impress the importance of a city leader, one who has the authority and complete responsibility for the entire city. That is indeed what the submissions highlighted — the imagination of a mayor who could get things done. A few writers lamented the better days gone by,…

Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself. - Gloria Steinem. Until T.N. Seshan became the Chief Election Commissioner of India, the public did not know much about the Election Commission and the powers it had. We’ve seen individuals infusing life into public institutions that were seen as ‘weak’ or ‘ceremonial’. I will draw inspiration from such stories to leverage my one year term as Mayor of this great city Bengaluru. My strategy would be to elevate the stature of the Mayor’s office, take up a small but significant set of things…

It was a heartrending sight. People sat or stood in groups watching their belongings being moved into lorries from the houses they had occupied for generations. The houses were being destroyed before their eyes, one by one. On Monday, November 20th, residents of the Thideer Nagar Slum on Greams Road had to vacate their houses under orders of the Corporation, the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) and the Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust (CRRT). They are among the 603 odd families being moved to TNSCB’s new shelter at Perumbakkam as part of the Cooum River Eco-restoration Project. The TNSCB has…

It’s been close to two years since the first 20 cities were selected under the much talked-about Smart Cities Mission (SCM) of the Government of India, but progress under the mission has been slow. Let us just look at the top five cities. Selected in January 2016, these cities - Bhubaneswar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat and Kochi - are supposed to complete the proposed projects under the SCM by 2021-22. But most of these cities appear to be lagging behind schedule, both in terms of the number of projects completed as well as the works under progress. Surat leads, with works…

I was following the articles posted about Mayors of other cities outside of India, and how as Mayor of their city they could achieve a lot. Of course, the lingering question is, are we really comparing apples to apples? Does the Mayor in our country have the similar responsibility and authority like a Mayor in a Philadelphia OR New York City? So here are my practical reasons why I would NEVER want to be Mayor of Bengaluru, it is almost as close or worse than being the Chief Minister of Delhi! There’s a saying in kannada, ಆಟಕ್ಕೆ ಉಂಟು ಲೆಕ್ಕಕ್ಕೆ ಇಲ್ಲ…