By Prof. R Vaidyanathan on 10th August 2016
Bengaluru as it is called these days is dead and in mortuary –Only to be buried in its own potholes. It is an important case study how Netas/Babus facilitated by judiciary did kill a city.
From 1972 or so the city has been taken for a ride by officials in BDA and BBMP in indiscriminately approving housing lay outs and multi-storey buildings on lakes and every possible water outflow systems.
The pathetic and shameful issue is neither agency has at no time had any detailed map made available to citizens about where you cannot build. There is something called “Raja Kaluvei” or storm water drains on which buildings should not be built. But Alas all these drains are used for high rises and other houses. There is a project called Bhoomi under BBMP jurisdiction which is supposed to tell you about these places. You require to be a super expert in understanding those hand drawn maps and read very small letters in Kannada. And till 2015 these were also not available.
No official at BDA or BBMP is willing or interested in providing accurate information about where you cannot build. Herein lies the seeds of bribery and thievery.
Since average citizen is not knowing about the exact situation and many inspectors /officials willing to sanction your plan for a bribe –the system has collapsed.
BBMP – Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike– is a biggest scam in Karnataka.
Its accounts have not been audited for long period and High Court was wanting it be dissolved.
Quote
Wondering how private accounts in banks could be maintained on behalf of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) by its officials, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday suggested to the State government to take a call on dissolving the civic body and appointing an administrator.
A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice Ravi Malimath made oral observations in this regard during the hearing of a PIL which alleged that the BBMP has consistently failed to get its accounts audited, as mandated by law, for the past five years resulting in several scams.
The bench ordered issue of notices to the Union Ministry of Finance, State government, BBMP and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
The PIL was filed by Namma Bengaluru Foundation and Rajya Sabha Member Rajeev Chandrasekhar. It has sought directions to the CAG to audit the BBMP’s accounts from 2011 to 2015 and to the State government to probe, identify persons and reasons for non-conduct of timely audit.
Appearing for the petitioners, Senior Counsel Sajjan Poovayya contended that non-conduct of audit by the BBMP was one of the reasons why Bengaluru did not qualify for the Smart City project of the Union government.
Unquote
Not only that the advertising Department of BBMP does not maintain any accounts and the whole thing is a huge scam
“However, the department has not maintained any of these books, nor has the audit department pointed out the lacuna. The advertisement department has not followed any norms of accounting. The Cash book has no columns like C/F or B/F to show the arrears owed by advertisement agencies to the BBMP.”
http://m.bfirst.in/article/2016_03_29/5780
Every year from 1990s a couple of children die in Bengaluru by slipping into open man hole during rainy season. No action or punishment to any official.
Rajya Sabha MP Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar has filed a criminal case in 2014 and the case is moving in snail pace.
Million potholes on Bengaluru roads and everyday one hears about death of a two wheeler driver due to these potholes. Police file cases against the drivers of these two wheelers for negligent driving. That is the height of cruelty.
Recently in its apparent show BBMP started demolishing fully constructed houses with all approvals stating they are on Storm water drains. The court asked about punishment to officials who have granted approvals to these houses.
Alas official cannot be punished for getting bribes and approving these layouts and houses
“Section 321(B) of the Karnataka Municipal Council Act provides for punishing corrupt officials but does not quantify the punishment, he observed. “It is high time to direct the state to amend the necessary Acts to initiate criminal action against erring officials,” the judge said.
As of now the Government can maximum transfer these officials if it wants to punish them.
It has been more than 2 years since the Revenue Department in the office of the Deputy Commissioner (Urban) surveyed the SWD network in the city. Even though the report was submitted to the BBMP, officials are yet to even complete fixing the boundaries of drains.
A severe rain like what was witnessed by Chennai in 2015—would completely submerge and destroy Bengaluru since it is unofficially stated that 95% of the city’s drainage system is clogged.
The Davos crowd works in IT majors in 21st century and BBMP runs on 19th century– corruption and absolute carelessness.
Bengaluru –RIP
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Vaidyanathan 