No Poster Boys

BBMP unable to give Bangalore a facelift

Some time last year, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) did a good job of upgrading the footpath along both sides of the Airport Road in Bangalore. It also built concrete-block tree guards around all the trees along the footpath and painted them in smart yellow and green colours. Within days, somebody stuck a poster on many of those guards announcing the availability of a certain paying guest accommodation. Soon, many more followed suit. Off and on, the BBMP would get somebody to scrape off the posters. Today, the lovely yellow and green colours have almost disappeared, and what you have are messy, ugly posters and leaflets announcing either ‘Accommodation Available’ or ‘Jobs Available’. Such vandalism can be seen along most major thoroughfares. Not just on tree guards, but also on trees, walls and telephone/electricity distribution boxes. All the posters have telephone numbers on them. Which, most would think, would make it a simple matter for the BBMP to catch the culprits and hand out exemplary punishment to put an end to such vandalism. Instead, what you have is a peculiar situation where the BBMP spends taxpayers’ money to wipe off old posters. Only for new ones to be put in their place.

Such brazen disregard for authority can be seen on other fronts too. Buildings come up with clear violations of setback rules and Floor Area Ratio norms. Builders use adjacent public roads to stock building material. When city authorities can’t stop abuses of the law where the identities of the violators are obvious, it’s surely too much to expect them to tackle problems where it is not obvious — such as dumping of garbage on roads and debris in lakes, as in Peenya’s Nelagadaranahalli Lake, under the cover of darkness. Bangalore can never hope to call itself an international city so long as the BBMP remains so ineffective. If the corporation’s problem is of inadequate personnel to monitor violations, it must employ more people and prepare Bangaloreans to bear that extra burden. If the problem is of its staff’s inefficiency, it must deal with it severely. In areas like maintenance of roads and lakes, private parties have shown their willingness to take this responsibility in return for signage rights. But little effort has been made so far to tap this potential. However, it’s not enough for us as citizens of this city to point a finger at the corporation. It is incumbent on us as individuals and as collectives — such as resident welfare associations — to not just address issues within the compounds of our houses and apartment complexes, but also to conduct public campaigns outside. And try to deal with them, without necessarily involving the corporation.

ps: Article taken verbatim from TOI Bangalore dated 20th April, 2007