DailyPost 2963
CIVIL SOCIETY COMMISSION FOR BANGALORE ROADS
We have heard of government commissions of enquiry, white papers, regulatory authorities and various other third-party official agencies to keep the executive work / actions under check, regulate and supervise its delivery as warranted. Audits are also a tool which is designed for multifarious impact on the financial expenditure and project delivery. Budgeting in the western world was transitioned to program budgeting long many years back. Project monitoring with the modern has reached nearing perfection. Testing is a given, from civil construction to IT, you don’t have to bother about it.
If still there is an issue, judiciary comes in handy in the Indian context and more often than not it is able to set it right. Now the trillion dollar question is, if all of it fails then what do you do? Can it even happen this way? A perfect example is already there, which every Bangalorean will agree to and also every visitor to the city. This is the pathetic condition of Bangalore roads, hundred percent man made. All what has been narrated above failed in Bangalore. It is a bold and audacious testimony to all that have brought us to this pass, that nothing can be done to them whatever might be the consequences of bad roads, the people and city has to face.
Now that the governmental ecosystem, the judiciary and media have done /not done their bit and any level of blitzkrieg coverage has made no difference, now it is time for the civil society to do something drastic. How it would be constituted would be a matter of detailing but what is required immediately is a Civil Society Commission dealing only with the status of Bangalore roads. With all the expertise at their command sourced from civil society; technical, legal, finance and managerial, they should become the repository of all data, documents and facts related to Bangalore roads. The needs to be first done for the roads which have gone into a total disarray and there are any number of them.
Lots of information today can come out of public domain data, what we term as the open source intelligence, which would include images, videos, audio and what not. Huge amounts of data / details can be sourced from the government agencies, mainly BBMP, over the last decade at least, inclusive of the technical details of the said road construction, the longevity and weather / rain withstanding claims. Tech validation, completion and commissioning can also be sourced. The low hanging fruit for the Commission would be getting the road samples tested through a recognized private agency. This report against the technical official validation documents can provide the base for the first level of criminal cases. PILs can be initiated on a variety of road related issues. The financial part well researched with the available tech tools can instantaneously throw a can of worms. And then a fact based study of the companies associated in road construction / repair activities, their capabilities and track record, the engineers and machinery put on the task, would rip apart everything that has shamelessly been done with public money.
CIVIL SOCIETY COMMISSION IS THE ONLY WAY FORWARD FOR BANGALORE ROADS, IT WILL BE THE INITIATION OF A STRONG NON-COMPROMISING PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.