On Friday, 24th June, 2022, Ms Kathyayini Chamaraj presented Civil Society Forum BBMP manifesto, keeping in view the soon to be held Municipal elections. The invitation read as below:
Civil Society Forum has great pleasure in inviting you to the presentation of "Manifesto for BBMP Election - 2022"
Presided by Hon'ble Sri Justice H.N. Nagamohan Das, Former Judge of Karnataka High Court
Chief Guests: Sri Ashwath Narayan, State General Secretary, BJP; Sri Ramalinga Reddy, Working President, KPCC; Sri C. M. Ibrahim, State President, Janata Dal (S); Sri Prakash Krishnappa, Member State Secretariat, CPI(M); Sri Prithvi Reddy, State President, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP); Sri Srikanth Narasimhan, General Secretary, Bengaluru Navanirmana Party (BNP); Sri C. N. Deepak, General Secretary, Karnataka Rashtra Samithi Paksha (KRS Party)
Date: Friday, 24th June 2022; Time: 10.00 AM to 1.30PM; Venue: Gandhi Bhavan, Kumara Krupa Road, Kumara Park East, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001
All are welcome.
Though the drafts were circulated amongst known Civil Society groups and activists (in cluding yours truly) in advance, seeking inputs, I must admit I did not quite wake up to the matter till the finalised version was sent. On receiving the same, I responded as below:
While I am in overall agreement with most of what is stated in the Civil Society Forum manifesto, I have the following comments to make on the "key demands" listed (numbered as per the list):
1A) Revenue enhancement:
2) Housing:
Huge properties of defunct PSU's like ITI, HMT, Mysore Lamps need to be re-developed for affordable housing on PPP basis with reputed developers.
3) Drinking water:
3b) Public toilets:
6) RTE:
While the Delhi model has been much talked about, they appear to be faced with the serious problem of "guest teachers" - check @ http://praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2012/05/23/oh-government-job#comment-38734 . The problem is more than of just teachers - it covers all government employees (including pourakarmika's), more so with government recently announcing that all C & D level jobs will be progressively outsourced in future. The answer perhaps lies in UBI (Universal Basic Income), more so since there is no social security system existing in the country.
7) Right to health:
Apparently, the Delhi "mohalla clinics" too are facing the same "guest doctor" issue, because of which it is not working at optimum levels.
9) Unorganised workers:
All C & D employees are also going to get added to this "gig" sector soon, in addition to the many already there, but termed as temporary, trainees, apprentices probationers, etc, trapped there for life (in effect as "bonded labourers") in the hope of getting confirmed, but which never happens. Answer again perhaps lies in UBI.
15) Urban transport:
For all of the new fangled Metro, Commuter Rail, etc etc coming on, a big part of the work-day commute trips have still to happen by bus. With its limited capacity, the BMTC should be concentrating on serving the needs of the poor. As such, the high-end services (including to the airport) best handed over to the private sector, as has already happened in other Metro's (CityFlo, Shuttl, etc).
Unlisted:
A) Power supply:
All of the above suggestions are in line with the overall thinking of "less government; more governance" based on which slogan the present government has come to power. So, there are no contradictions from the stated policy. All that is needed is implementation.
The resulting savings that will accrue to the public exchequer will enable it to implement all of the many social programmes effectively too.
A reference may also be made to my blog-post of Dec '17, accessible here on the same subject.
I circulated the same among the Chief Guests (party representatives) too.
Muralidhar Rao
ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆಗಳು
my takeaways from the meet