Bengaluru: The Karnataka election, scheduled for 10 May, have put a spotlight on Bengaluru’s crumbling infrastructure, floods, eroding green cover, toxic lakes, mass land encroachments, unregulated and unorganised growth.
The city is one of contradictions. Home to over one-fourth of Karnataka’s population, it was among the three biggest property investment destinations in the country between 2018-2022, according to the data released by real estate consultancy firm CBRE last Tuesday.
It has wealth in abundance – 21 out of the 187 billionaires in India live here, according to 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List released earlier, in March – but its residents live in arguably one of the worst conditions across the world.
In July last year, Bengaluru was rated the ‘least liveable’ city in India, ranking 146 out of the 173 cities globally by the European Intelligence Unit (EUI) which used five parameters – healthcare, stability, culture & environment, infrastructure and education.
Karnataka election scheduled for 10 May have put the spotlight back on Bengaluru’s crumbling infrastructure, floods, eroding green cover, toxic lakes, mass land encroachments, unregulated and unorganised growth. The city accounts for 28 of the 224 seats in the state assembly.
Krishna Byre Gowda, the Congress legislator from Byatrayanapura in Bengaluru, told ThePrint that only a stable government can ensure sustained development.
“A stable government is a prerequisite for any progress to happen,” he said. “If you start from a compromising position, then there is no take-off,” he added, referring to the unstable governments that have been in place since 2018.
The BJP has been in power in Karnataka since 2019 and has had control over the city corporation, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), since 2010.
“Development has not been commensurate with growth of the population. It is a nightmare,” BJP spokesperson Ganesh Karnik told The Print, adding that decades of unregulated growth has exacerbated Bengaluru’s challenges.
Policy makers have tried hard to play catch up but with little success, he said.
Karnik added that there are widespread encroachment of lakes and storm water drains, illegal occupying of public spaces, buildings built illegally and beyond permitted levels, as well as land mafia that is leading to more problems.
Nevertheless, city residents face the same challenges or pothole-laden roads, poor infrastructure and knee-jerk solutions involving huge expenditure despite the Karnataka government allocating thousands of crores to the city corporation, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). In March, the Karnataka government recently approved the BBMP budget at ₹11,524 crore.
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Rich city, poor infrastructure
In September 2021, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai informed the upper house of the state legislature that over Rs 20,000 crore had been spent on road-related works in Bengaluru over the last five years.
But, the roads are in shambles. In January, a two-judge Supreme Court bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and B.V. Nagarathna warned authorities in Chandigarh, India’s only planned city, to remain cautious with its expansion plans and see the ‘condition of Bengaluru’, using it as a template of urban ruin.
To demonstrate the perils of a routine commute in Bengaluru, Raj Bhagat Palanichamy, who works with research organisation World Resources Institute (WRI) India, posted a map on Twitter in January, showing a Pedestrian was killed every 2 days in Bengaluru roads and most of them while crossing the roads.
#Map
A Pedestrian is killed every 2 days in #Bengaluru roads & most of them (>60%) while crossing the roads! Hotspots are Majestic, KR Market.
900 people in 4 years
Note: Stats not much different in other cities pic.twitter.com/eznypmAtSW
— Raj Bhagat P #Mapper4Life (@rajbhagatt) January 11, 2023
The same month, according to a report that quoted traffic police data, showed that 3,827 accidents were reported in 2022, resulting in the deaths of 777 people and injury to 3,235 people.
The problem lies in misplaced priorities, feel experts. Citing a news report on issues relating to the Golf Club, urban affairs expert Ashwin Mahesh tweeted recently, “The speed to get such things ‘resolved’ is in contrast to slowly (or not) putting up schools and clinics, providing water, building good roads and drains.”
He added, “A clear sign of what the netas care about. They’re telling us plainly. We only need to hear that, and choose other leaders.”
The floods last year were also not just because of heavy rains but the rapid commercialisation and unregulated construction, including cases of land grabbing, as reported by the media.
‘Re-run of old movie’
Out of the 28 seats in Bengaluru, 26 went to the polls in 2018. The BJP managed to win 11, the Congress won 13 while the JD(S) won 2. This was largely unchanged since 2013 as people are still voting over the same issues.
In the All India Survey on Governance Issues and Voting Behaviour 2018 study by ADR, the most recurring voter priorities in Bengaluru remained drinking water, better roads and employment opportunities across all four Lok Sabha constituencies in the city.
Bengaluru is also considered a Vokkaliga city with a high number of people from this community, and 13 MLAs across all three political parties. Four seats are reserved for SCs.
Urban affairs expert V. Ravichandar told ThePrint that most promises made by parties in their manifesto are forgotten on the day of elections itself and have become a ‘reasonably meaningless routine’.
“While MLAs are fundamentally supposed to legislate, they end up running the city and most of the promises are about city things (infrastructure) which are really not there. That’s how dysfunctional our system is. It’s like watching the re-run of an old movie. You have the sense that you have seen this before,” he said.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)