dear all,

Its time to start redefining in our own minds, on who is responsible for what after the BBMP elections.

In the vacuum these last few years, MLAs’ filed the space for citizen grieviences.The BBMP engineers started to come directly under them. Task forces were set up to almost run the city. The parstatals (BDA, BWSSB etc) became more a law unto themselves. (The elections themselves will not change the parastals; a governance bill is required for that) .And citizen direct invovelement, even thro a badly run and set up ward committee disappeared (Again a governance reform issue).

First thing, is to realize that a MLA’s job is to provide and monitor the laws and rules of the State. He should have nothing to do with how or where a road is built in a ward.

The councilor is responsible for ward priorities and resource allocations, through direct interaction with citizens or ward committees. He has nothing to do with the engineering aspects or the actual commercial tendering decisions.

Some of them have moral and positional oversight over others, but not direct interference in the others jurisdiction.

"Fixing the Great Mistake" is a new Streetfilms series that examines what went wrong in the early part of the 20th Century, when our cities began catering to the automobile, and how those decisions continue to affect our lives today.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone for construction of 1,500 houses in the Ragigudda slum at JP Nagar 2nd phase, the Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said, “All 570 slums in the City will be rehabilitated under the JNNURM-BSUP scheme by Dec 2010 to make Bangalore a slum-free City".

Where would underpasses, flyovers and then elevated flyovers leave us? 880 crores for 9.5 kms, almost a similar amount for Jalahalli elevated flyover, a third one for the BIAL to cost 680 crores as on date apart from several hundred crores spent in satiating similar needs in various wards of the city. What is the kind of infrastructural mess that is being created and touted as great w