Promise of Bengaluru Graduate Constituency election candidates!

May be it is too late to write this post, as the election day for Bengaluru Garduate Constituency is today - June 10th, 2012. Still chance to go out and vote if you are already registered. Pls do vote if you can.

There are total 16 candidates in fray for this MLC seat spread accross Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural and Ramanagaram MLA constituencies. Noted among them are:

1. Ramachandra Gowda - BJP
2. Deve Gowda, 51, of JD(S)
3. Ramoji Gowda, 39, Congress
4. Ashwin Mahesh, 42, Loksatta
5. K S Lakshmi, 41, CPI (M)
6. Nagalaxmi Bai, 50, Indpendent

Each one of them coming from different backgrounds has different agenda if elected.

Source - Citizen Matters

Ramachandra Gowda - As per his campaign pamphlet, Gowda won ‘Best Legislator’ award in 1994, and has pushed for development of lakes and provision of more holidays to government/PSU employees. As medical education minister, he has increased student stipends, increased government medical seats in private colleges, developed infrastructure in new hospitals. The pamphlet says that he has established an intensive care unit (ICU) in Victoria, Bowring and Lady Curzon hospital. On what he would do if elected, Gowda says, “I will repeat the kind of work I have done so far.”

Ramojam says that, if elected, he will work on environmental conservation, improving literacy and controlling population growth. “I will focus on these, along with graduates’ problems such as unemployment, low salaries, discrepancy in salary scales etc. On city’s water issue, I will push to ensure that Rain Water Harvesting is compulsory and work on identifying other water sources. We cannot control migration or growth of industries, so these are the only options.”  (Rainwater harvesting is already compulsory.)

Deve Gowda, "...he will focus more on graduates’ problems. “There are MLAs and corporators to look after general issues. This is graduates’ constituency, so I will focus on graduates’ unemployment issues, teachers’ problems on salary scale disparity, low salary in unaided schools etc. Retired government employees also face issues of pension and benefits,”

On water scarcity and city’s growth, Gowda says that migration into the city should be controlled. “Sub-cities should be developed in Kanakpura, Magadi, Nelamangala etc. Other district headquarters should also be improved so that growth is evenly distributed.”

Ashwin Mahesh says that, if elected, he will push for proper implementation of Community Participation law and for Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Governance Bill (both of which promote citizen participation) to be tabled in both houses. “I will push for community-management for lakes. I will maintain a public record of all my votes in the Council and will try to blog about my work so that citizens can see the policy-making and implementation process.”

About the city’s water crisis, he says that this is due to three follies - not tapping local lakes for supply, not pricing BWSSB water properly, and not tackling the water mafia. “I will push for a regulator for the water sector, similar to power. I would push for pricing of borewells according to water extracted, for adoption of dual piping in all new communities, and for a proper set of water reuse guidelines,” he says.

Nagalakshmi,...she will work for graduates from these areas and from other districts. “Many graduates in the city are  from city outskirts and other districts of Karnataka. Rural graduates would have mostly studied in government schools, and have difficulty competing here, especially for IT/BT jobs. I will focus on education and employment of these sections, along with salary problems faced by teachers,” she says.

says that she will also focus on women’s issues such as lack of safety, discrimination and female foeticide. “Women are expected to compromise for family and are harassed otherwise. Awareness should be raised on this, and counselling given in such cases. Women should be encouraged to contribute to society.”

In fact I had wanted to pose these questions to the candidates to better know their vision for the constituency they are fighting election for. it is too late, nevertheless here are my questions:

1. What is their big idea for ushering an environment of sustainable solutions to city's civic issues?
2. What is their vision and plan to bring some sanity to road based PT system in City? Freeing BMTC from Politics? Auto/Taxis becoming part of PT system?
3. Any idea about solutions that could move the growth to peripheral towns and villages?
4. Any plans to accord priority for PT vehicles on roads? Penalize private vehicle use in CBD?
5. Any grand ideas to improve and expand govt schools catering to poor neighborhoods? use of RTE to achieve this?
6. Any plans to confront the waste disposal problem in the city and state? From homes to landfills?
7. Plans for stopping mad rush to widen roads, signal free corridors?
8. Plans for ushering a unified emergency response system?
9. Plans to improve and expand health care system in India? Opening more PHC's, Hospitals?
10. Plans to provide equitable access to development activity for all sections and all localities? Stopping lopsided development in the city?