August 15, 2017 will be a date that Bengalureans, at least a half of them, would remember for the rest of their lives. As I woke up to a drizzly chilly morning, some others in a different part of the city were shocked to see their streets and even houses inundated by the overnight rainfall. 18 cms of rainfall, the highest ever recorded since 1890, and about half of the rainfall Bengaluru receives in the month of August, ensured that cars parked in the basements of swanky apartments drink their share of sewage and storm water.
A day later, things are still limping back to normalcy. There are stinking streets, some are still underwater. We are reading reports of how the government, the ministers and MLAs alike, the corporation’s bureaucrats, babus , the Chief Minister of the State (who behaves like he is the Mayor), Sir K J George (the Home Minister who thinks he owns Bengaluru) and the Mayor Miss Padmavathi were all busy attending to Rahul Baba who was here to taste Vangibath for a mere ₹10 in an Indira canteen – a new canteen chain launched by the government to serve the poor. Food that’s subsidized by the taxes we pay, in the form of income tax, property tax, betterment fees and what not.
What is the middle-class Bengaluruean getting back for what he pays? Waterlogged roads, potholed roads, streets dotted with filthy uncollected garbage lying there for weeks, unchecked commercial activities bringing down the quality of life in the city’s once serene residential areas.
So who’s to blame? The same taxpayers. The ones who don’t take matters into their hands to change the status quo. The ones who are scared to fight their neighbors when they sling a bag of garbage across the street from their houses located on the first, second and third floors of the buildings around you. The ones who pay the ‘hafta’ amount the water lineman collects to supply water once in a week or even a month – a fundamental right no one cares about. The ones who stay at home watching Arnab shout at the top of his voice even on election days. The ones who vote based on their ideological leanings and not based on common sense.
At the same time, you have
Dear Bengaluruean, these politicians have a free run because you don’t register either your votes or your protest. Previous elections have shown that only 45-55% of the registered voters from the city actually vote. With a large migrant voters registered elsewhere, this probably means only a third of Bengaluru’s citizens actually vote. You want things to happen magically in a city under corrupt administrators. The Constitution has given you the rights to vote someone out of power and bring in a deserving candidate, but that can happen only if you vote and vote sensibly. You should participate in protests, support the protest against lake encroachments, against dubious projects that serve vested interests and not that of the public.
And you as a citizen, shouldn’t forget your duties towards the city. Don’t buy a property that’s encroaching a storm water drain, don’t fall for the “Lakeview” tags of large apartment blocks that are guilty of releasing sewage into these drains and lakes without establishing a Sewage Treatment Plant. Don’t build a house on entire land available. Stop using plastic, recycle your wet waste, reuse the plastic you have, discard electronic waste. Don:t let the rainwater reach the drains, harvest rainwater on your rooftops, force your apartment builders to implement rainwater harvesting.
Bengaluru is dying as much because of you and not just because of a failed administration. Save your city from flooding. Wake up!
Clear Thoughts from A Confused Head 
Wow – what an insane amount of rain. It looks like what happened last year in Louisiana – a place I often go for work. They got between 28-66 cm in one day. Even when I went down a few months after it happened I saw its effects. Trash next to the road often included not just the usual bags but drywall that had to be replaced along with appliances and furniture as many people had their entire first floor under water. Even going back now, some restaurants and hotels still smell strongly of mould because it was so damp for so long.
I see what you’re saying about politics. We have some similar issues that prevent our city from improving as quickly and as much as it could. Politicians are afraid to take bold steps for fear they might upset voters and be voted out. And sometimes, when bold steps actually *are* taken, their successors just reverse the plan. For example, the mayor before our last one approved a huge light rail network to be installed in the city. He got federal and provincial funding and it was ready to go. His successor cancelled the whole thing, paid almost $250 million in penalties to the people who were to supply the vehicles. Then he proposed an equally expensive but much less useful subway expansion with only two stops. (Subways cost exponentially more than surface rail because of the tunneling required).
Like so many other things these days, I know I am oversimplifying hugely but I just feel like “can’t we all just work together? I feel like if we did we could all have significantly better lives…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree. Unfortunately, Indian cities are not self-administered unlike US cities. Especially, cities that are state capitals are governed by the State government directly and the city corporations are left to rot. Our mayors are mere puppets with a tenure of a year, they don’t weild sufficient powers to take control of the cities. This only worsens things because the State governments always find their electoral bases in the rural pockets and smaller twins and cities than the metropolitans
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow – that’s such a different political landscape. Almost the opposite of our own provincial governments. In our case there are about 14 million people in the province and 3 million live in my city with a good portion more living in other smaller cities. Those living in rural areas feel left out because the people in the cities end up making all of the decisions and the perception often is that those decisions favour the cities as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Urban-Rural divide is present here too, but the urban centres are generally cash-cows. That doesn’t mean our rural areas are developed, in fact, they score nil on some basic amenities. Indian politics is quite complex, religion, caste (unique to India), language score high in political agenda than development, human rights etc. The kind of population we have results in extreme poverty and stress on ecology and resources. Your province has 14 million people. Bengaluru has about 12 million people in its city limits. ,
LikeLike