A city with problems galore

I have personally witnessed the success in Bangalore of an engaged industry and government. When the major stakeholders of a city, such as the IT industry in Bangalore, and the government of Bangalore, joined forces and worked for the good of a city using capabilities of both parties, in a complementary way, things did look up.

I have seen it start with the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF). In 1999, the government and the industry worked together to identify what the needs of the citizens were and how to respond to those needs, like garbage collection, public toilets, property tax collection, and accountability of government agencies. For many years, there was visible improvement. There was a high level of motivation and a certain level of success. The city government’s limitations to support the fast growth became slowly clear, as the city’s growth was not matched by a sufficient growth in capabilities.

In 2004, things changed when on the eve of elections, doubts were expressed whether we had done enough for the rural areas. A general picture was painted that too much was done for Bangalore, at the cost of rural Karnataka. It left a hesitant government, without clear leadership, wondering how to deal with demands of coalition governments. Progress came to a complete stop, with visible impact on the lives of the citizens.

When things go wrong everyone is to blame, when things go right everyone claims victory. Such is life. Things started going, and are still going, wrong. Big projects were re-examined, sniffed by the new rulers and pissed on, causing further delay. The international airport is a great example. When I landed here, I heard it was due to be ready for operation in two years; that is roughly still the case.

The design is most likely outdated, as pointed out reportedly by the Union civil aviation minister on Friday. How we are ever going to reach it by car or train from the city is still a mystery. I have never seen a connectivity plan, and work has not been started on anything other than adding more lanes to the National Highway, which is already crumbling under dense traffic, moving slowly around cows. A railway connection, allowing check-in in the town’s major business hubs before boarding the train to the airport, is not in sight.

Is it a surprise that tempers rise and mud flies around? The tempers of all the citizens have been rising. They have taken to the streets, climbed the mud around the messy construction going on forever, making it tough for them to leave their neighbourhoods, and shouted when they got stuck on airport road which caused them to miss their flight.

I may never understand the political compulsions which forbid a new government from continuing the good measures from a previous government. The fact that the BATF was suffocated by ignoring it, was a slap in the face of all the people who had spent their personal efforts and often their personal money on making a contribution to their city. While the resignation of Naryana Murthy of Infosys as the chairman of the airport consortium (BIAL) may draw headlines, the firing of other executives was less visible, but probably even more painful. Slow suffocation, is worse than resignation, which is a statement at least.

Fortunately the joining of hands of government and major stakeholders in Bangalore is on the rise. We have empowered committees, we have an active citizens’ movement which has been engaging itself with the government on collecting feedback on the Bangalore masterplan, and helping improve it.

Empowered committees of civic agencies and industry (I am a member) set priorities. At the same time, the Bangalore Forum for Information Technology (I am a member) is boycotting the IT fair, as it still does not understand why government organises a show to attract more investment, while refusing to fix simple issues.

The IT industry is considered spoilt brats, while all they ask for to begin with is just roads without potholes, sidewalks and other basic things. And not for its expat employees like me, whose ratio is not even 1:99 in the MNC firms. The IT industry has a voice and is heard; the other citizens suffer as much but have no voice.

There are seven million people in Bangalore, and the resignation of one citizen from an important post does not spell disaster; other people will stand up and make things happen. The lasting impact may be that the government will now struggle to get the best people to work for it. That is the real concern.

The writer is the CEO of Philips Software India. The article expresses his personal views