The Bangalore Buzz...

My association with Bangalore dates back to the early 1980's, a quaint lazy little city, a pensioner's paradise. For the futcha's in Bangalore, you may be wondering if I am talking about our Bangalore.

Indeed the city has exploded in the last 10 years. This unprecedented growth coupled with our city planner's myopic vision and bureaucracy have brought the city down to its knees.

This city is still capable of attracting millions of visitors, immigrants and businessmen, with its delectable mix of great weather, great cultural mix and snazzy new businesses, offering something that meets every taste.

However, this may not be for too long. The effects of this growth are beginning to show. And unless we take this seriously, it will not be too long before the damage becomes irreparable.

Over the last 10 years there has been a lot of clamour from the media, the public, social welfare groups and the government about improving bangalore. Sadly though these voices dont seem to be complementing each other. Worse still, they seem to be detrimental to the overall growth of the city. There needs to be a holistic approach to city planning. Yes, there will be many issues and concerns and all steps taken will not benefit everybody, but so long as we make progress we have to push for these initiatives.

For example, we need infrastructure. There is no doubt about that. Now this will not come without losing some green cover. But at the same time, we need to make sure that we are compensating this loss with adequate planning for green cover going forward.

The challenges are immense on all fronts : education, public health, transportation, infrastructure, public amenities and even basics like water and electricity.
And we do not have a bottomless exchequer either. So this demands proper prioritization and planning so that our money is not wasted. We are not a rich nation like the united states. But we can still afford to leave our street lights on during the day time, while the Americans cannot do it still.

Its time we mend our ways. We, the citizens, the government, the bureaucrats, NGO's need to pull up our socks and back each other up to deliver.