When ‘grievance redressal meets’ turn a farce

On Tuesday, the powerful chief commissioner of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), Tushar Girinath conducted his weekly grievance meeting in the south of the city in Bommanahalli zone. As expected, he received a flurry of complaints from residents of the southern reaches of Bengaluru which was not surprising with many even wondering why there were not many more problems pouring in. Bengaluru’s civic infrastructure has never been as pitiable as it is now after a strong monsoon this year. Almost every road is dotted with potholes and craters making riding on them not only a difficult but also a dangerous ordeal. There is no repair work in sight while what greets most citizens is the digging up of more roads for infrastructure or civic work leaving ugly piles of stones, debris and mud on the roadside.

Power supply continues to be erratic for reasons best known to higher-ups at Bescom despite the dams being filled to their brim and hydel power generation at comfortable levels. ‘Maintenance work’ is cited as the usual reason to stop Cauvery water supply which has left residents in many part of the city fuming. As for the traffic on the roads, it is chaotic as usual with the traffic cops struggling to make sure that violations are curbed and underage youngsters with no licenses are stopped in time and convinced on the need to adhere to the rules. Garbage collection is at its worst with many roads in the city wearing an utterly unhygienic look with garbage piles strewn all across them. So if cases of dengue and other deadly diseases, caused by unhygienic conditions, are spiraling out of control, one has to only blame the ‘black spots’ where garbage and debris accumulate and remain uncleared for many days. Coming back to Girinath’s latest meeting, many of those who attended were quick to dub it an ‘eyewash’ while stressing the need to hold ward-level meetings to resolve problems specific to each area.

This is perfectly understandable considering the fact that the IT City has been without a civic body for more than four years with no indications emerging on when the next civic polls will be held. As a resident put it cynically, the last ward committee meeting in his area was held before the Assembly polls last year which goes to show how negligent civic officials and others concerned have been in responding to citizens’ woes. Bengaluru is constantly under the global scanner which is not surprising considering the number of foreign companies which have set up shop here and the huge number of foreign citizens working in industry and the services sector. A ride on any road even in the city’s heart has become no less than harrowing and such painful experiences hardly do any good to the image of the administration at a time when it is desperately trying to draw more investments. There are many suggestions one can put forth to ease the city’s infra woes. Quick response teams for one, comprising civic officials and technical experts can be constituted to visit, study and resolve issues which are proving to be unbearable for citizens, whether it be garbage, roads, power supply, transport facilities or even law and order.

A plan for time-bound completion of civic and metro projects should be drawn up so that any project which is found to be lagging behind, can be speeded up after identifying the bottlenecks. The interface between citizens and the BBMP officials should improve so that people feel they can look forward to a proactive and friendly civic body and not one which turns a blind eye once the ‘grievance redressal meetings’ are done and over. Bengalureans no doubt are a patient lot who bear their woes with a shrug but how long can one expect them to endure back-breaking trips on city roads and abysmally poor civic infrastructure, which gives in under even the slightest pressure?