For the last two days , Karnataka's new and popular local english news channel News 9 has been running stories about an 18 month ols boy Vijay , who was washed away in a storm watre drain.
Many of the press people and bangalores high elite intellectuals feel that having an uncovered drain in the backyards of of one of Bengaluru's poshest and busiest suburbh i.e Koramangala, is all the fault of the BBMP and also negilienge of the BBMP.
OOk, i agree that the state of infrastructure in this city is quite appalling when compared to say Delhi . But what about Vijay's parents who couldn't use their common sense and stop their child from playing in the heavy rain and near an uncovered drain?are they not to be blamed equally or as much as the civic authorities of BBMP? In bfact it has been the civic authorities who have been conducting the search for the body in different lakes for the last two days. Okie so what? Children have fallen into wells in NCR region, Punjab and Haryana and other cities but how much has the state media or national media blamed the civic authorities for negligence?It in fact, in my humble opinion is a sheer waste of media airtime where they were called BBMP "sick" and running a campaign to send "Get Well Soon Roses" to the BBmp. How ridiculous to run the story for 48 hrs. non stop when they were more pressing matters of state and national importance for the channel to cover. Ok so isnce this is a blog and im entitled to air my views,here is what i feel: yes its the fault of bbmp partially - yes the lack of covered drainage and other civic amenities and proper garbage dispensing systems but this is only 40 to 50% of the faults. The rest is the fault of or negiligence on part of the parents as well.
As for issues like cleanliness well all the citizens of bangalore are also at fault. As far as covered drainage is concernedyes i think it is a must - even 5000 yrs ago the Indus Valley people were more civilised than us - atleast they had a proper grabage collection system and covered drainage. In the face of modernisation and globalisation , are the citizens of India and especially the citizens of Bangalore retrograding? For, i think that it only when the citizen scome together or support the civic bodies like bbmp can the civic bodies take action. For example, 2 years ago, the bbmp started waste segregation for recycling plastic in whitefield and koramngala. The experiment flopped in whitefield. Why? residents thought throwing plastic waste and paper paste in seperate bins was too much of a hassel. But considering that whitefield is a locality where many Nri's live, it would have been easier because in the western nations garbage segregation is a must but why? their logic was that the local authorities didnt supply them with bins - that imho is nonsens- it worked and is still wokring in koramangala- the reason being the citizens of koramngala wanted to make a difference . So all am saying is it is in the attitude of citizens that can make all the difference. The drain in koramangala could have been covered but for some residents who oppose it. I hope now that the people opposing the covering of the drain( its been on blueprint for 5 yrs) suport the endeavours ofbbmp insted of opposing it. I seriously do hope they wake up now.
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