Development comes to a standstill

The election day is at the doorstep and candidates are busy moving around the City making tall promises — of better roads, smooth connectivity, plenty of water and better traffic management. However, there seems to be no visible change in the infrastructural projects. They seemed to have slowed down, garbage collection is at its slowest pace and the state of the roads are bad.

With monsoons set to arrive soon, there seems to be no effort being made by the authorities to make the life of Bangaloreans easy, especially during the rains. Most of the officials in the government bodies such as BBMP, Bangalore Traffic Police, BWSSB and the law and order division of the Bangalore City police have been deputed for election duty. They say after their election work, they are left with very little time to inspect the City and attend to pending work.

Additional Commissioner of police (traffic and law and order) M A Saleem says, “About 1,000 traffic policemen and 500 home guards have been sent out of the City on election duty. We are short-staffed and managing traffic during peak hours is a bit of a problem.”

Commenting on the state of roads, a  senior official with the BBMP says, “It’s election time. The tenders for roadworks have already been sanctioned but until the new government comes to power, there won’t be any contractors willing to undertake roadwork.”

People point out that governments may come and go but they have no hope that the state of roads or the infrastructure in the City is going to get any better. Sajal Mitra, a professional, says, “Bangalore has lost its charm. The City is plagued by frequent power cuts, garbage and the government seems indifferent when it comes to basic civic amenities. People are fed up with never-ending traffic jams and half-completed infrastructure projects. All this, coupled with increasing pollution, has left those living in the City, feeling miserable.” 

Arindam, a youngster, feels the government may have invested crores trying to improve the infrastructure in the City but the results are nil. “The government has done very little to attract investments. Bad roads and depleting water table nag people all the time,” says Arindam. 

Serena T, a professional, feels that the problems in the City have taken a backseat in the wake of elections.“The root cause of bad roads, corruption and irregular garbage collection is a bad political system and lack of proper governance. It’s a vicious circle,” she sums up.