Mr. Subramanya makes way for Mr. Bharat Lal Meena. DH / 14/June.
I'd have been proud if this was an act of 'accountability' over the recent loss of life and hardship in the city due to rains. While citizens have played their part in such tragedies, as an agency, BBMP didn't pass the test either. But alas, this had to be a political act.
So, how can the new commissioner improve B'lore's love affair with rains?
Get a good drainage plan in place, clear all un-authorized incursions into our storm water system, clear debris and clogs in all water channels, impose rain water harvesting, mandate temporary storage (retention) ponds for multi-story and other such large developments, improve visibility, stop mix-up sewerage and rain water run-off.... and more than anything else, fight the lobbies that stop you at every step. Daunting task, but one baby step at a time, we can get there. If we want to, that is.
Ravi
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Welcome decision - Is BBMP listening?
DH 15/June - Illegal constructions on drains to be razed - R Ashok.
.."So, the BBMP has been directed to demolish them all on a war footing in coordination with the police"..
All this frenzy of news on rain related havoc seems to have some effect after all. Can you see some sense of urgency?
BBMP - Learn from unfortunate recent incidents. Take note of this general agreement & support. Beat the iron while it is hot. Govt and public will (and if not, will be forced to) back you up.
Knock, knock, knock... Helloooo.... Mr Meena - Are you listening?
Ravi
what about the accountability of the polity?
The Commissioner is only executing as per the directions given by the polity. And, as an executive, Mr Subramania's performance hasn't been too bad - in fact, it may even be termed good. The mistakes he made were the insensitive remarks (with regard to Abhishek), and the lodging of the case against the Lokayukta. After that, the CM had no choice.
On the question of road-widening (not bothering too much with the harm it was causing to the city's green heritage), etc, the blame (if one were to lay them) should be totally on the polity. Their idea of development still seems to be modelled on cities like Dubai, while even Beijing has begun talks of remodelling itself - check here . Of course, the credit (blame, in my opinion) for the magic box based development is possibly largely to Mr Subramania's account.
Also, if all the drainages, including "rajakaluve's", have got blocked over the years, there's perhaps the hand of some politician or the other behind each of them. The UB city issue, over which there had been a raging battle going on between the Commissioner and the Lokayukta, continues to remain a mystery. Though Mr Subramania generally enjoyed a clean image, this chapter remains unexplained.
All in all, more than the Commissioners (and civil servants), it's the politicians that have to be made accountable.
Muralidhar Rao
How do we measure them up?
The public drama of an executive getting dismissed over a few bad statements in the press was interesting to watch. Some legislators "liked" Mr Subramanya. Some did not. In 'inner circles', MR Subramanya had been talked off as a "hurdle" for some of the new plans running in the city. Right above this comment, Murali sir seems to like his performance.
But one reality that has to dawn on us is that we simply do not have a way of measuring performance of city's civic bodies. What does that lead to? Mostly emotive and perceptive talk like Subramanya was good, or, no no no, he was bad. Praveen Sood is great. no he is not. BMTC sucks, or does it not.
Measuring performance of civic bodies themselves is perhaps a bit hard due to chaotic governance arrangement where responsibilities and overlaps are either not clear or too convenient. But we, the citizens can certainly do one thing - simply track the services we get, and do so in some quantifiable way. What if we publish a transportation index, or a sanitation index, or similar for our city using whatever data points we can gather in easy collaborative ways?
Will write a little more detailed - and I promise a geeky one - post to explain this better.