THE FLOODING OF BENGALURU The food like situation which caused havoc on 24th September is an eye opener to the civic authorities of Bangalore. Even now, if they do not wake up the city will become another Kolkata of South. 1ST OCTOBER 2010 ISSUE

      

By Firoz.T.Totanawala

The Bangalore Metro Reporter

1st OCTOBER 2010 ISSUE-

                     THE FLOODING OF BENGALURU

The food like situation which caused havoc on 24^th September is an eye opener to the civic authorities of Bangalore. Even now, if they do not wake up the city will become another Kolkata of South.

The current pathetic civic amenities of Bangalore are the outcome of many reckless and irrational actions being undertaken by the respective officials from the past. It is always essential to study the subject in its entirety in order to understand it thoroughly. The civic amenities of our city could have been much better had there been enough care and precaution taken in the past. Let us take a bird’s eye view on the subject.

On 26^th January 1976, the functions and activities of Planning Authority of Bangalore, Urban Art Commission, and Karnataka Housing Board, were merged to form the Bangalore Development Authority.  The Urban Arts Commission was headed by a learned T.P. Issar, an IAS officer who was not only a good disciplinarian but a protectorate of some of the heritage of Bangalore. The Town Planning authority was headed by K.S. Rame Gowda, a perfect  town planner and a visionary who along with Noor Ahmed (who later moved to PWD as Chief Engineer) were good advisers to the then Chief Minister and Chairmen of erstwhile CITB. Up till 1976, the town planning activities were under the frame work of Outline Development Plan of Bangalore which was known as ODP and the concept of CDP evolved later.

Then came the regime of R.Gundu Rao and R.K. Hegde and hell was let loose since persons like Rame Gowda, N. Govindappa, T.N. Galgali were not available to guide the Commissioners of BDA and the Government. Eminent personalities like, Charles Corea, T.J. Doss, Mahmood Ayaz were all not there on the board of directors of BDA. Persons loyal to the Chief Minister were picked and posted to BDA who were more interested in getting allotment quota rather than developing the city with future civic amenities. As a result the proposed schemes such as BTM 4^th 5^th and 6^th and the surrounding areas of H.R.B.R., HBR, Banaswadi, M.R.C.R and Srigandadakaval layouts vanished into the hands of land lords. These land lords, not only got compensation from BDA, but also managed to sell their lands to needy public of Bangalore, which resulted in the haphazard growth of small segments within the city as upper class slums. By the time, when the CDP was put into practice the cat was out of bag, narrow lanes with flow of sewage on the roads had started. 

At this juncture, the BCC collected development charges and issued khatas and sanctioned building plans recklessly without bothering about the widths of the roads.  The greater loser was BDA, who had neither reclaimed the compensation which were not deposited in the Civil Courts nor collected the reconveyance charges from these beneficiaries of sites on its lands. Thus, BDA incurred a loss of rupees one billion. If the BDA is serious, then it should take courage to collect reconveyance charges and regularization charges from the site owners who have constructed their houses on its lands instead of demolishing which is not only a national loss but a childish act.

In the very early stage, there were two municipalities for the city of Bangalore, one was called the Blackpally Cantonment Municipality for cantonment area, and the another Bangalore City Municipality for southern Bangalore. These municipalities were functioning perfectly with able guidance of persons like Sir Mirza Ismail, the Dewan of erstwhile princely Mysore and Dewan Madhav Rao. The sewage system and water supply to the citizens were met from Ippegondanahally and Hosakote tanks. These Municipalities were merged in 1949 and there was no problem as far as the drainage and sewage was concerned. There were only 60 divisions in the Corporation at that time and it was capable to manage the city’s needs at least till the year 1980.

The problem started after the divisions were increased to 100. Now, the Government had leaped beyond the metropolitan limits up to the rural areas and increased the wards to 200 without bothering about the sewage system and the traffic problems of the city which is a major bottleneck for its growth. During the time of B.T. Somanna and HGV Reddy, there used to be seminars and symposiums and eminent personalities like world famous Waghle use to give advice to the then Chairmen about the planning of the city.  After their exit, no Chairman or Commissioner of BDA or BBMp bothered to conduct such seminars, which has resulted in this chaos. Had the Bengaluru city been on the bank of any river or sea port, then, nobody could have stopped it from submerging. At least the Bangaloreans should thank God for not gifting the city with a river or a sea.