In the eternal battle between “the system” and Bengaluru’s residents, the (largely) same group of people have risen yet again in a new avatar to save the city.
In yet another brave attempt at saving the city from pollution! shrinking parks! BBMP scams! bureaucratic quagmires! terrible traffic! etc, the Siddaramaiah government has dug out a 2014 skeleton to rejuvenate the Bengaluru Vision Group, aka Bengaluru Blue Print Action Group.
Headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the group has 23 members (some netas, some babus, while the rest are not all corporate honchos) and is super-charged up about rushing to the rescue of the city. After all, they are going to supersede the pesky Metropolitan Planning Committee to raise the city to its potential glory.
One persevering member of the group was delighted at that she was back in a new superhero avatar. “With serious intent, true commitment and sustained leadership of the government, so much can be done,” Swathi Ramanathan, co-founder of Janaagraha said.
After all, the first time a chief minister (SM Krishna aka SMK) had tried to do something to get Bangalore all jazzed up and sparkling clean… uh… no one really knows what happened. All that remains of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force is its name, and its individual members whose unshakeable motto is Die Another Day. When they formed Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure and Development (ABIDe) along with BS Yeddyurappa, they said: “We’ll be back!”
AND THEY ARE!
(Conditions Apply: The current group are a downgraded version of Vision Group 2014 which Siddaramaiah has dug out of the cupboard. Some members were apparently not worthy of being asked to join, but we cannot confirm these reports.)
However, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw ensured that everybody knew that none of the superheroes had been left out. She said: “This is a well-constituted group bringing various stake-holders in improving the city. What it is not, is a collection of big industry names. For instance, Mr. Azim Premji and I have been working towards saving water bodies.”
Among the non-industry members are the babus and netas, who outnumber the corporate honchos.
V Raivchandar pointed out a crucial difference between the group’s BATF-ABIDe days and now: “It is qualitatively different from BATF and Abide, as it is led by the chief minister, which will ensure that its recommendations are implemented.
Fantastic! This bypass route beats a lazy-ass corruption-ridden BBMP any day. And don’t forget that it had objected to some of the plans some of the group’s members have managed to implement for the city.
They are the heroes the Garden City deserves.
But, there are those who believe that they ain’t the type of heroes Bengaluru needs right now. And so, they will hunt the X-Men (they’ve already begun). But the X-Men can take it. Because they’re not just our heroes, they’re our silent guardians, watchful protectors.
The X-Men WILL prevail.
Some of the group's members are
Janaagraha’s trustees Ramesh Ramanathan and Swati Ramanathan;
Infosys’s NR Narayan Murthy;
Sachin Bansal, founder of Flipkart;
Azim Premji chairman of Wipro and Limited and Azim Premji foundation;
KJ George, Bengaluru development minister;
Ramalinga Reddy, Bengaluru district in-charge minister;
former BBMP commissioner Siddaiah;
Kalpana Kar of Bengaluru Political Action Committee;
Manipal Group head Mohandas Pai;
waste-management expert Ramakanth;
former additional chief secretary K Jairaj;
founder of Center for SMART Cities RK Misra and
Chairman of the Karnataka Electricity Board (KEB) BS Patil .
Bengaluru development minister KJ George will be the deputy chairman of the group, and ministers representing Bengaluru, the chief secretary and the additional chief secretary (urban development department) will be the group’s members.