Nimmooru, Nammooru - Your City, Our City

 Dr. Renuka Viswanathan,  former Secretary to Govt of  India in Cabinet Secretariat             We need many things to make Bengaluru better, roads without potholes, drains that don’t overflow, pavements, water connections, well-lit streets, clean lakes, sewage plants, parks and parking spaces.   We ask for them and get only one reply from BBMP and our light and water management agencies like BESCOM and BWSSB:   “THERE IS NO MONEY’’. If we persist, we are asked to choose.   Give up parks for roads, drains for lakes.   But, we need them all NOW.   These are critical things which cannot be postponed.             What are the real facts?   When we ask for figures, we get no immediate replies, even when we have a right to that information.   We wait for long periods and are often not provided with answers.   We cannot find out whether a public work ...

      A couple of weeks back, I participated in a ‘Nammoora Charche’ programme, organised by the Aam Aadmi Party, in Bangalore. This initiative, brings together concerned people to discuss issues that affect the people of Bangalore. Anchored and driven by Dr. Renuka Viswanathan, formerly Secretary (Coordination) in the Cabinet Secretariat and Rural Development Secretary in the Government of India.      This instalment of the programme was for the residents of Bellandur ward in Bangalore, and the subject discussed was the knotty one of how to obtain a ‘Khata’, which is the document maintained by the Brihat Bangalore Mahanagara Palika; a list of all the payers of Property tax in the city.       Renuka herself is no stranger to Bellandur; she lives in the ward. Bellandur is the caravanserai of Bangalore’s silk route; the aortic corridor of industry and enterprise that connects the IT hubs of Whitefield, Sarjapur, Koramangala and onward...