“Citizens are the only ones who can fix this city, and it’s time we began doing this,” said Dr Ashwin Mahesh while addressing the resident welfare associations, on the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Governance Act (BMRGA) on Saturday. The event was organised by Namma Bengaluru Foundation at the Koramangala Club.
“Every day, nearly 1,000 people come into our city. This would mean we have to build 250 homes and one school everyday, and a hostel every second day. We do not have a system to deal with this. Our response structures are not adequate enough to deal with this,” he said.
Urbanisation needs to be managed well in a city that is growing at such a tremendous pace. “But the growth of our city should not be an excuse for the shoddy work we are seeing around us,” he emphasised. “There are other cities in the country, which are being industrialised at a much faster pace. If we can manage urbanisation well, we can be the number 1 city in the country.”
This, he added, cannot be done without active citizen participation. “Instead of waiting for the BBMP to plan their budget and implement it, we need to tell them what our needs and requirements are,” he said. The BMRGA, in many respects, can be a solution to this, he added.
“There will be one law that is binding for all the departments, who will work in consultation with the ward members and residents of that area,” he said. Each ward will be divided into eight to 10 neighbourhoods and will have representatives who will look after the problems and requirements in the area, he added.
Besides BMRGA, the forum also saw Dr Uday Vijayan highlighting the importance of ensuring fire safety norms in buildings. Dr Shankara Prasad explained e-governance and how it had helped curb corruption in villages.
Dr Meenakshi Bharat explained the process of waste management and the importance of segregation. BWSSB officials explained the problems with water management in the city and how rain water harvesting was going to help control the situation from spiralling out of control.
