‘Karnataka’s story of power: An era of empty promises’

Bangalore imposes the highest surcharge on power and water in the country, but the irony is we still do not have reliable supply of both.

The gap between demand and supply of power is huge in an IT city like Bangalore, which should ideally have uninterrupted power supply.

Aware of the power crisis, IT companies, industries, and even retail outlets have installed their own generators.

Who should be blamed for this? Every politicial party we have ever voted into power has promised in its manifesto to set up a 500 megawatt power plant in Bidadi for increasing the supply to Bangalore , but this has proved to be a false promise every time, meant only to gain votes.

I am not sure what the present government is planning to do about this. We need to study the power requirements of the city and its consumption to find ways to conserve it.

Clearly more awareness has to be created about the importance of conserving energy and use of CFL bulbs encouraged.

People should realise that electricity isn’t cheap to produce and saving it can end our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

Bangalore unlike Delhi has government agencies running electric companies. And no government in power will order a stringent audit of its own companies. Even if an audit is done, it will be a mere eyewash.

As for the water crisis, I would blame the city’s infrastructure for it. The groundwater table has fallen badly with more and more tankers required to meet the shortfall in supply to the city.

Unless action is taken to recharge it , Bangalore’s water crisis will only worsen.

Its important to make rain water harvesting mandatory not only for government buildings, but for all other structures coming up in the city.

A drive must be conducted to make sure that buildings that have made no provision for it opt for it without more delay.

The water crisis is now starting to hit the realty sector in Bangalore as construction of a large number of buildings has been stalled owing to lack of water.

If there are no water sources for a building, it cannot obtain the required no objection certificate from the authorities concerned.

But sadly the Cauvery water projects have not kept pace with the city’s growth.

The second phase of the Cauvery fourth stage is only now nearing completion and the government plans to start on the Cauvery fifth stage soon to cater to the city’s requirements.

Bangalore needs to deal with these issues using various strategies in the interests of the people.

The writer is a social activist