“Bangaloreans, If You Don’t Vote, Kiss Your Future Goodbye”

In his typical blunt manner, Mohandas Pai makes a case for the need to vote in the city’s elections on Saturday.

A major part of Bengaluru’s one crore population is expected to vote on Saturday for new corporators to the BBMP, the city’s administrative body. Experts say that the best-case scenario is if the election spurred the restructuring of BBMP, which had earlier been stalled by the Governor.

In his blunt, no-nonsense style, Mohandas Pai, member of Bangalore Political Action Committee, talks about how crucial it is to vote, and how broken BBMP is.

Bengaluru Government is Broken

The BBMP is a broken organisation. It’s highly corrupt and highly ineffective, and way behind what we want. Unless you reform the organisation, you’re not going to get results. So holding elections for a flawed organisation is a terrible thing. It’s a mockery of democracy.

The Government of Karnataka had passed a law to break up the BBMC but unfortunately, the governor did not sign the legislation.

I hope the people of Bangalore understand the damage caused to the city by not restructuring, and they will take care to express their annoyance [during voting]. Because without restructuring the BBMP, you are going to get the same kind of a very corrupt, unwieldy, unruly organisation.

Mohandas Pai’s Bluntspeak

• The BBMP is a broken organisation. It’s highly corrupt. Highly ineffective.
• Bangalore is too big for BBMP. How can one single unit represent a population of one crore?
• Currently, there is a reign of terror in Bangalore. One simply has to go to the BBMP office to see this.
• If the educated middle class of Bangalore do not got out and vote, they can kiss their futures goodbye.

BBMP Needs to be Restructured

Bangalore is too big for BBMP. How can one single unit represent a population of one crore?

The staff is highly corrupt. They have got so many charges against them. They manufacture bills. They burn down records. They have bank accounts that are not audited.

All this information is in the public domain and the CAG has not done the audit for so many years. It’s a terrible state of affairs. They should have been reformed, they should have been made into 3 or 5 entities and then elections should have been held in 6 months, that would have been much better. What is going to happen now is ultimately a mockery of democracy.

Reign of Terror in Bengaluru

I hope that after the election, there will be pressure for restructuring, and within 6-8 months the BBMP will be dissolved and we’ll have fresh elections. That will be good for Bangalore.

Currently, there is a reign of terror in Bangalore. One simply has to go to the BBMP office to see this. What the corporators have done is that they’ve broken up the budget in their areas of influence. And in their areas of influence, they choose the contractors. And the bills are made by the contractors, and the council has no powers.

That’s how they work. Each one gets a share of the spoils. Some of the good ones ensure money is spent and work is done but many of the bad ones just ensure that much of the money is siphoned off.

You must understand this is how the BBMP has been captured. For example, in many of the wards, without the approval of the corporator, no building concession licenses are given, and bribes have to be paid. No vendor can get a contract in that ward, and no garbage can be removed unless the corporator’s approval is taken.

How the Tanker Mafia Operates

It’s terrible inside the BBMP. One doesn’t understand how bad things are.

For example, the Tanker mafia is in control in many areas. The tankers take BWSSB water and sell it to the people. The BWSSB valve main has been captured. They don’t open the valve shaft. They say there’s no water but then the tanker mafia takes water from BBMP and supplies it, and that’s how they make money.

Even for approvals, there’s harassment. Suppose you get an approval and you start work, the corporator and his henchman will come and say “stop work, we have to be paid.” You ask the builders, they’ll tell you. You ask householders, they’ll tell you.

And you see one family dominating the garbage mafia, isn’t it? One family has 8-9 contracts, they’ve gone to court, etc. and now the whole contracts system is a mess, and Bangalore is a mess.

The Chief Minister himself has said that corporators of both the parties are corrupt.

And now that you’re going to hold elections for the same corrupt body, what is going to happen?

The Educated Middle Class Has to Vote

That’s why it is very important for the educated middle class of Bangalore who form 40% of the total voters, to go out and vote and to show everybody that they care, they want a better city and they’re going to vote. If they don’t do that, they can kiss their futures goodbye.

If the educated middle class of Bangalore do not got out and vote, they are going to suffer, traffic is going to get worse, there will no water, there will be more potholes, they will have bad air breathe, they will fall sick and I repeat, they can kiss their futures goodbye!

(As told to H R Venkatesh. Edited slightly for clarity. Bangalore votes on August 22, Saturday. Here’s a list of BPAC endorsed candidates.)