And the blame game continues...

bad Coordination

In a situation where local municipal bodies themselves remain unsure as to which responsibility falls under whose jurisdiction, any optimism in terms of development may seem foolish.

Sadly, this is the case for Bangalore; the attention of the main authorities in the City — the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), for instance — seems to be focussed on public relations rather than actually attending to the several problems that Bangaloreans face.

In the process, representatives play a fickle blame game and point fingers at one another, in a bid to displace responsibility.

For instance, there seems to be some confusion between the bodies as to who is accountable for the maintenance of the storm-water drains in the City.

H C Ananthaswamy, the chief engineer, in charge of storm-water drains with the BBMP, says that his responsibility ends after the drains (which he now dubs as ‘sewage-water drains’) are constructed and from then on, the BWSSB must be held accountable for their poor condition. However, B N Ninjegowda, execute engineer with the BWSSB, begs to differ. “The BWSSB only takes care of providing water supply to the City, the necessary maintenance involved in this and aspects like revenue collection. Maintaining the storm-water drains is the BBMP’s job,” he states.

Ironically, when Metrolife contacted Shivasharanappa S Khandre, the public relations officer of the BBMP, he confirmed this. “The major storm-water drains fall under Ananthaswamy’s lookout,” he says, adding that the engineers of different wards also attend to problems of water-logging.

Most Bangaloreans seem to have resigned themselves to this attitude and remain sceptical of any change. Archana, an engineer, points out that the problem is that a certain level of coordination and communication is required between the main government bodies in the City and that seems to be lacking. “In my locality for instance, some of the roads — which were poorly-maintained — have been dug up to fix some water pipes, after which they’ve been left in that condition. Certain shopkeepers in the area have approached both the BBMP and BWSSB asking them to take care of the situation but there’s no coordination between the two bodies to finish their respective work. They aren’t taking it forward,” she explains.

With this sort of miscommunication, citizens are at the receiving end and are forced to put up with damaged pipes, broken-down roads, hanging electrical wires and the like.
 Mahesh, a resident of Banashankari, states, “It’s sad that instead of dealing with the numerous problems that the City is facing, the main bodies are spending time bickering and pointing fingers at each other. As citizens, we don’t care who gets the job done — we pay our taxes and expect to enjoy the facilities that come along with that. It would be better if they presented a united front and coordinated better to deliver results.” Others, however, feel that it isn’t just poor communication that has resulted in this mess.

Nalin, a software engineer, feels that it’s more a case of sheer apathy. “It’s a blame game created by corruption and inefficiency. Many of the officials in these bodies have understandings with different private entities and take bribes to stall or speed up a particular project. In the end, the common man suffers — particularly the lower rungs of society,” he concludes.