Your agenda for a better city - Bangalore - City - The Times of India

Your agenda for a better city - Bangalore - City - The Times of India

Your agenda for a better city
TNN, Jan 17, 2010, 05.28am IST

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Tags:elections|bbmp

BANGALORE: First it was a citizen corporator, now there is citizens' agenda for the BBMP elections. This is in the form of ABIDe's vision document — Plan Bengaluru 2020.

On Saturday, the document's architects said that unlike other such efforts that gather dust, this one will take the city's governance to the next level and involve the Bangalorean in more ways than one.

ABIDe convener Rajeev Chandrsekhar said: "We have nearly nine million people in the city striving for basic amenities. As somebody said, it is urban chaos. Imagine this: in 2020, there will be nearly 16 million people and the same amount of space. That will be urban anarchy! This document was prepared to have a vision for governance in the near future."

Joining him was R K Misra. "We want this to be a baseline document. If there is no such paper for people to debate, what really is development? There would be no measure. Though the contents are not carved in stone, people can argue and change the way the system runs. For example, Varthur lake is full of weeds and can be potentially turned into a water resource. But there is no clear idea about who should take it up. The lake is under minor irrigation department while the land is in BBMP limits; BWSSB is in charge of water supply. So there is no clear consensus. The vision document has outlined the role of each authority in such a scenario," he said.

The CM's adviser on urban affairs, A Ravindra, said bringing in reforms is a difficult process in urban planning. "Sometimes, it takes more than 10 years to bring in a change."

Ashwin Mahesh and R K Misra emphasized on the need for empowering citizens in every sphere of development. The document is said to be a window for citizens to engage themselves in governance. A campaign will soon be launched whereby every RWA, MLA and MP associated with the city will get a copy to spread the word among citizens.