Siddaramaiah, #SaveWhitefield or Congress will lose Karnataka
What does an honest tax-paying citizen do if the locality roads are pothole ridden, garbage is not cleared, and traffic chaos becomes the order of the day? After failing to secure any assurance from the civic authorities concerned, the last effort of such citizens is to register their protest through silent demonstration. That's what was witnessed in Bangalore on Monday when thousands of IT professionals came out on the streets to highlight the Congress government's indifference on the issue.
Bangalore's Whitefield is one of the foremost IT hubs in the world with top MNCs, including Indian firms, operating out of the locality, which was once dominated by Anglo-Indians. But today, it has become synonymous with pathetic public infrastructure, traffic jams, clogged drains and unregulated development. Fed up with the lackadaisical attitude of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which is responsible for the maintenance of Whitefield, thousands of IT professionals took leave from work and staged a peaceful demonstration to draw the attention of the government to their plight.
But neither Karnataka's chief minister Siddaramaiah nor his newly-appointed Bangalore development minister KJ George had time to meet these techies, as they were busy cracking a political deal with the Janata Dal (Secular) for the upcoming Legislative Council polls!
It is ironic that the Congress and the JD(S) joined hands to elect a mayor and deputy mayor for Bangalore, but the alliance has not done any good for the city, which continues to suffer because of misplaced priorities. The BBMP, which met on Monday, adjourned for the day but none of the councillors even thought it worth to meet the agitating protesters in Whitefield.
As it rained for almost a fortnight in Bangalore, roads developed huge craters and potholes leading to two-wheeler accidents. Whitefield is among the worst-affected IT hubs in Bangalore with the public infrastructure completely crumbling. On November 16, as it poured in the city, traffic came to a complete standstill in Whitefield for more than five hours. That's when the IT professionals and residents of Whitefield decided to stage a demonstration on November 30.
Thousands of them launched the initiative #SaveWhitefield, which received tremendous support on social media platforms. On Monday, they turned up voluntarily at important junctions of Whitefield to peacefully protest against the lack of maintenance of their locality. According to a rough estimate, Whitefield contributes Rs 28,000 crore in the form of various taxes to the government, but the infrastructure remains extremely poor.
Whitefield was initially managed by various local municipalities. Then the Karnataka Industrial Area Board stepped in. Now, the BBMP, which has taken over the area, has completely lost the plot. A kind of mindset prevails among the ruling class in Bangalore that the techies earn fat salaries and are content with facilities provided. It takes two hours every morning for IT professionals to reach their office in Whitefield from the Marathahalli Bridge, covering a distance of 7km.
Though the Bangalore Police launched various one-way plans and car-pooling to reduce the traffic jams, the root cause of the problem - potholed roads - has defeated the purpose. Even the IT companies have responded positively by changing the working hours and supporting the car-pooling initiatives. But if the roads are so bad that they have become difficult to negotiate, everybody is fighting a losing battle.
The situation in Whitefield can be compared to any other IT hub of Bangalore where road infrastructure has crumbled under pressure. Siddaramaiah and George continue to ignore the city while people curse them for their lop-sided policies. The government is hardly left with any time to save Bangalore from crumbling further.