Asks UnlockBLR: Is it just good roads? What about healthcare, education?
BENGALURU: Are our international-standard roads made only for the IT sector? Do the poor benefit from wide footpaths and pothole-free roads? If IT sector employees’ loss of time on road is valued in dollars, why does the state government not consider the garment factory workers’ time on road? Is transforming the city only limited to improving infrastructure and not other sectors?
While there was some serious food for thought at #UnlockBLR, an open discussion organised by World Resources Institute to find ideas for sustainable cities on Saturday, some of the civic experts decided to subtly battle it out in words.
As civic evangelist V. Ravichander moderated a discussion on ‘Do cities have the potential to trigger a virtuous cycle of urban transformation?’, panelists Vikas Desai, technical director, Urban Health and Climate Resilience Centre, Kathyayini Chamaraj, executive trustee, CIVIC, R.K Misra, founder, Centre for Smart Cities and Smita Srinivas, head- economic development, IIHS, shared their ideas on truly transforming a city.
As Misra batted for mega infrastructure projects such as TenderSURE roads, elevated corridors and ring roads, Ms Desai and Ms Kathyayini pitched for importance of public health, education and countered him that the needs of urban poor did not end with good roads.
When Misra said that there were one million IT employees in the city and the IT sector was losing $6 billion every year due to bad roads and traffic jams, and the state was also losing out on its revenue, Kathyayini countered, “I don’t know how many million employees of informal sector are there in the city. But if anyone was interested, these workers too are suffering from bad roads and are probably losing money while they spend hours on road. Unfortunately, all good roads in Bengaluru lead to IT hubs.”
To this, Misra pointed out, “There is not a single road in the city which says good roads are for IT sector only. Both the rich and poor can make use of good roads.” Kathyayini merely said that recently the pourakarmikas and garment factory workers staged a protest and their demand was better pay, not good roads.
Meanwhile, commenting about public health, Desai, said, “Most often, there are no estimates of public health loss or how much of revenue is lost due to unwell employees, including the urban poor. Hence, the leaders don’t want to link public health with development.”
She said that data sharing between private-public organisations was the key to curb fudging of health records. “In cases of dengue, we never know how many have fallen ill because only the government hospital has official records, while private hospitals conduct innumerable tests. Hence, data sharing is crucial,” she said.
The experts concluded that urban transformation was possible only when a community was created with bureaucrats and leaders, who may have power for short term, but need to make ideas that will sustain in the long term. Also, there will be a change in the system only when leaders work bottom up starting from corporators and MLAs, and not just top down with Chief Minister and ministers planning for a better city.
