Citizen group: Before getting on with ‘Brand Bengaluru’, fix basic issues

Bengaluru: Before the government gets on with its grandiose ‘Brand Bengaluru’ plans, it must fix stormwater drains, streamline garbage collection, rejuvenate lakes, and repair roads and streetlights.

While it believes Brand Bengaluru must be built and strengthened, the group Citizen Action Forum (CAF) has told Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar that it would be futile to embark on the plan without addressing the most essential issues.

The forum has enlisted issues like sewage discharging into stormwater drains, irregular garbage clearance, water shortage in several areas, building bylaw violations, illegal parking, footpath encroachments, non-existent streetlights, sub-standard public works, pollution of lakes, unaccountable officers, and delay in holding elections to the BBMP council.

"It is easy to make promises, paint rosy pictures and talk of Brand Bengaluru in glowing terms, but it will remain an unfulfilled vision until the above core weaknesses are brought out into the open, acknowledged, and addressed, and steps taken for systematic changes,” the forum has said in a letter to Shivakumar.

It suggested creation of a constitutional method of city planning, making the administration truly and legally accountable, stopping heavy investments on ‘steel and concrete’, but creating pride by working on the small and significant aspects of civic amenities that impact citizens’ lives.