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City Pulse
Save Bellandur Campaign – From ‘Me’ to ‘We’
October 31, 2018• By Sandhya C D'Souza
On October 27, Bengaluru saw one of its biggest citizen demonstration. Over 10,000 people under the banner ‘Save Bellandur Campaign’ protested peacefully by forming a human chain stretching a distance of 9 kilometres, demanding civic authorities immediately address civic issues plaguing Bellandur.
The huge turn-up has put the civic authorities as well as the MLAs on their toes, with MLA Aravind Limbavali assuring the protestors on immediately forwarding their demands to the chief minister’s office.
However, was mobilizing citizens a challenge? Not really, says Vishnu Prasad, President of Kasavanahalli Development Forum and one the main coordinators of ‘Save Bellandur Campaign.’
Mobilizing citizens
The idea of ‘Save Bellandur Campaign’ started almost a month back, after the traffic woes and pathetic road conditions was the main topic being discussed in everyone’s homes and neighbourhood, Vishnu Prasad tells IChangeMyCity.
Prasad compares living in the 27 square kilometer ward to an ‘urban slum’. “When Bellandur hits the headlines, it’s mostly due to the frothy lake. However, living conditions here are far worse. Being an IT corridor, people in Bellandur pay Rs 220 crores as taxes to BBMP but get only Rs 7 crore in return in BBMP’s budgetary allocation,” he says quoting a Janaagraha analysis of the 2017-18 budget.
“It’s been a decade, since we have seen major infrastructure development in the area. When we represent the issues to the local corporator and MLA, they blame the government. Meanwhile, government representatives blame us for electing non performing representatives. While there is a lack of transparency, it’s the common man who suffers,” adds Prasad.
Hence, around mid-September a demonstration under ‘Save Bellandur Campaign’ was decided. For this, the Save Bellandur Campaign team connected with 120 plus Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) under Kasavanahalli Development Forum, Chikkanayakanahalli Forum, Doddakannelli Rising, Haralur Forum, Bellandur village and surroundings, KasaMuktha Bellandur, GreenGlenLayout Residents, Bangalore Apartment Federation, Carmelaramunites, Citizens for Bangalore, Bellandur Forum as well as RWAs in Halanayakanahalli.
Not just that, door-to door campaign, bike rally as well as painting competition for children on theme ‘mobility, pedestrian safety and cleanliness’ on October 21, helped in creating awareness. A huge number of residents from Bellandur village also joined the campaign. With over 250 active participants, all on a Whatsapp group, coordinating and channelizing the citizen energy became easy.
“While each one in the ward was affected due to one or the other issue, getting them together was easy. Usually, people have the ‘my’ attitude which makes them bother only when issues affect them. This same sentiment, we tried to channelize to ‘we’ attitude and this could be the main reason for the huge turn-up,” he adds.
Key demands
- To increase BBMP’s budgetary allocation for the ward, which was only Rs 7 crore last financial year.
- Iblur, Outer Ring Road and Sarjapur are among the top 5 worst commute roads. With over 3,00,000 plus commuters in this zone, the area is one of the worst choked with no steps taken to decongest. Hence, Sarjapur road widening with due compensation to land owners is critical. If providing infrastructure is not possible, then commercialization in the zone should be stopped and new office spaces and SEZ in the zone should not be approved.
- Water, underground drainage is nonexistent. The BWSSB work which is happening in 110 villages is going on at a slow pace. A coordinated plan, weekly monitoring and fixes to mitigate issues is needed immediately.
- Implement garbage microplan, fix destination zones, commit for functional Dry Waste Collection Centre and Biogas plant in 30 days. Increase the number of garbage pick-up trucks and routes from 24 to 54.
- Holistic lake rejuvenation as per the monitoring committee report of 2016, including empowered Lake Committee formation to ensure proper funding and usage of funds.
- Restructure governance and administration of Bellandur ward. Form Mahadevapura Corporation, make Bellandur ward manageable. Address issues such as lack of funds, shortage of staff, accountability on BBMP Sahaaya/Sakala which is missing at present.
- Mandate social audit as a must for all work order over Rs 15 lakhs, validated by ward committees.
- Decongest 61 kilometre of major roads and PWD road works.
- Introduce new mini bus hub spoke lines from Electronic city, Carmelaram.
- Works of Metro Iblur-Carmelaram in Phase 3 needs to be planned in Phase 2.
- Enable water for Bellandur in 2018, speed up UGD for early 2019.
Way Forward
After the protest, the representatives of Save Bellandur Campaign submitted a petition to the Chief Secretary of Karnataka. The MLAs have assured to forward the petition to the Chief Minister, and a petition has also been submitted to the Bengaluru Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun.
Vishnu Prasad says that currently, Save Bellandur Campaign was possible with the unity of different RWAs. We are planning to form a federation consisting representation from the RWAs and key stakeholders. There are also plans to meet influencers, representatives and officers who can address the issues affecting the ward.
If there is lack of positive progress, Prasad says a writ petition is being contemplated in the court, to withhold tax payer’s money from the ward to the BBMP. Currently this possibility is being discussed with legal team, he adds.
And finally, Prasad says that steps are on to mobilize voters and get more number of people to register. Only when votes get affected, people representatives wake up to people’s issues, he points out.