“Elections come and go, and manifestos too come and go. But a city is forever.
As political parties of every hue promise the sun, moon, beach and sky, it is important for us to define and focus upon the real needs of Bengaluru of the future.
When I look at its infrastructure needs, there are some that require immediate attention, and some in the medium term.
However, the first issue that comes to mind when one thinks of Bengaluru is the "T" word, traffic!
The other obviously is the condition of its roads and flyovers and the potholes that have captured our imagination for years.
Bengaluru's roads cannot fall apart with every rain. And I think we have a solution in the white-topped roads that are already being invested in by the BBMP. But I will not think of the obvious problems concerning the roads, flyovers, lakes, commuters and other infrastructure that affect Bengaluru.
I will instead focus on just one issue today, the attitude of people who live in Bengaluru. We need to get more involved, get impatient when we see an open drain, or cable-wires dangling dangerously on our streets. We also need to get loud and vocal about honking on our streets.
I seriously do believe the government of the future, whichever party it belongs to, must invest time, energy and money to make our people more involved in the locality they live in and commute through. If these issues relating to people can be sorted out, everything else will fall into place. When people get going, the governments of the day better get going!" tening to see H. D. Kumaraswamy talking of real issues such as education, health, employment and farming and proposing tangible solutions.
(Harish Bijoor, brand expert and founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.).
