DailyPost 2182
WHO WILL STEM THE BANGALORE ROT?
The house can remain divided whether the Bangalore’s recent floods were man made or an act of God, it would depend on which side of the fence you are positioned. The general perception and reality have finally veered to the idea that it was the result of a rot, which for the uninitiated would even find it difficult to imagine. What has visible for decades together for the average citizens as hunky dory, finally came down like a pack of cards. Illusion of permanence, safety and comfort so carefully crafted. If they had any inkling of the tinderbox they were living on, it is difficult to believe that they would have invested the money they did.
It will still take a long time, till their lives are back on the track. This nightmare would haunt us for all times to come, and like the pandemic, if it were to come back in waves, it would become impossible to recover. The rot has been continuing for decades together, and added to the calamity non-readiness, if we may call so. With every passing year, what was getting added to the habitation in the same rotten style; procedure, approval, execution and camouflage, was turning out to be precipitous. Water logging and flooding have been the order of the day, in bits and pieces, on a regular basis, only the scale was missing and also the nature of people whose lives were impacted this time. The media glare sealed the case for all times.
Blame game is the most popular sport in the country, it played but for sports grounds, but happens to be team sport of very different kind. For the detached and the objective ones, more often than not all are blemished. The rajkaluve being vilified has the at the core of this tragedy. At this day and age, can that not been put as public data, when it being encroached for ages. The same thing goes for the storm water drains. A map with these layers should adorn every office or the concerned departments, all builders and revenue authorities. A map / drawing sans this fact has been an open invitation to disaster and it came.
Unplanned expansion explanation for completely planned layouts, gated communities and apartment complexes, with approvals and inspections in place, cannot be allowed to taken as a defence, even by the most novice town planner. Amongst the major encroachers are Wipro, Prestige, Eco Space, Bagmane tech park and Rainbow Drive Layout to name a few. Who were the officials or set of them and in whose dispensation should also come in adjoining column with the defaulters. The construction was done by some agencies, who have specialized knowledge of everything concerned, and get hired for that purpose, the names of such building companies and their concerned officials and staff also needs to find a place in the hall of shame. Last but the not the least, the biggest executive of the present day democratic India, the elected representatives. Nothing moves without their wish. The constituencies have been transformed into executive jurisdictional boundaries of the de-facto rulers. This is the master stroke of Indian democracy. No list of the sinking IT city can be complete without them. The multi-headed hydra criss-crosses everything beyond recognition. Can the situation ever be redeemed beyond the optics?
UNIMAGINABLY TRUE THAT ENDELSS STAKEHOLDERS CAN WORK IN UNISION FOR DECADES TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
Sanjay Sahay