Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Blug.. blug.. from flooded Bangalore


After Mumbai, it is now the turn of Bangalore to be lashed by torrential rains and get flooded.
The political establishment more concerned about power politics has continually neglected the infrastructure of Bangalore or modified it to suit their requirements.

When Mother Nature has unleashed a deluge of rain on it, the already crumbling infrastructure of Bangalore has been washed away.

Now will start the blame game among politicians.

Inadequate drainage, unplanned growth, illegal encroachments on lake beds, and a host of other factors have led to this situation. Read an article of mine from much earlier (July 31st, 2005) for more details- http://sunilpichamuthu.blogspot.com/2005/07/bangalore-and-floods.html

You can view pictures of flooded Bangalore at my photo blog. Some photos have been contributed courtesy Niju.
http://focus-shoot-bang.blogspot.com

IT companies maybe able to log out from a flooded Bangalore, but hapless residents bogged down in water-logged streets and homes have to contend with a slack political establishment whose view appears to be.. "Water-logged? Give them a net and let them fish!"

Monday, October 24, 2005

Peddling the idea of pedalling



On Sunday Oct. 23rd, Bob Hoekstra of Philips managed to get two people, one of whom is the deputy PM of Netherlands not to accompany him for a walk in a park but a journey on two wheels (non-motorized) through some parts of Bangalore.

The idea is noble- to create an awareness among Bangaloreans about 'cycling for a cleaner Bangalore and Better Health'.

They set off on their bicycles, (were the bicycles with gears?- newspapers are devoid of details), only one of them, the Deputy PM dons a helmet. The rest put their faith in God and the relatively clear roads on a Sunday morning. Did their escort vans also help in clearing the roads? Maybe.

The photo makes it appear like a dream journey. Just three cycles on a Sunday morning meandering down a fairly clear and surprisingly smooth stretch of road, with a few escort vehicles some distance behind. The 25 km. stretch from Cubbon Park to Hessarghatta must have been a gruelling ride that Sunday morning. Imagine trying to do that in rush hour traffic without escorts! That too without a helmet! Suicide!

Would Indian politicians attempt such an event on Bangalore roads? I very much doubt it. Even if they were to try it, one could imagine the traffic blockades on a Sunday morning.

So what would be needed to convert what appears to be a pipe dream into reality?

  • Smooth well surfaced roads. Try riding a cycle through craters on the Moon or in Bangalore. We never read in the news article what the Netherlands Deputy PM had to say about the quality of Netherlands roads on which cyclists travel.
    As an aside from a cycling site about cycling in Netherlands
    http://holland.cyclingaroundtheworld.nl/
    "... The main roads are often very busy, which makes them not enjoyable for cycling. All busy roads do have separate cycle lanes. So cycling along these roads is safe, but we don't recommend it. Much nicer are the special bicycle lanes, far away from motorised traffic.
    The easiest way to find them is to follow signposted routes. In the cities traffic is dense. Dutch cyclists are notorious for ignoring all traffic rules, especially concerning waiting for red traffic lights. You'd better not follow their example..."
  • Good strong helmets. Never attempt such a feat without a helmet Bob!
  • Separate lanes for cyclists. What would that require? Definitely a lot of self-disciplined Bangaloreans. What has happened to the yellow lines painted with a flourish on the shoulders of many of Bangalore's roads?? Physical barricades would be necessary to safeguard cyclists lanes. Paint doesn't work. Cyclists and motorists would have to follow traffic rules strictly. Lazy cyclists are well known tail-gaters (one hand on a faster moving vehicle) Special bicycle lanes could instead be built to nearby rural areas and biking tours organised for tourists and other interested individuals, thereby bringing income also.

Self-discipline, honesty and integrity are qualities marked by their absence in Bangaloreans. Just the other day a traffic jam on one of Bangalore's roads led a motorcyclist and a bicyclist to take to the pavement, in a bid to speed up and overtake the rest but were forced to slow down as a pedestrian ( yours truly.. ;-) ) ahead, though moving in the same direction on the same pavement deliberately slowed down and refused to pay heed to blaring horn and ringing bells nor give way! Now isn't that irritating to you pavement dwellers (New definition: that species of Bangaloreans who drive their vehicles on the pavement).

The matter of traffic congestion cannot be solved by just adopting the common cycle. Much more will need to be done. Has anyone tried the even humbler method of walking to work? Even that people will not be able to do with ease, given the state of our pavements. People cannot walk the complete distance, so can we get buses which are not loaded to bulging capacity but where each person gets a seat? So what would be required is a better transport system involving a good infrastructure. Still a pipe-dream.

Can Bob and other IT heads enforce steps in their organisations, such as those using motorcycles and scooters push the vehicle for the last kilometre or two to work and study congestion levels in that area. Will that be feasible? Doubtful. They could still try it and see.

Can buses for IT companies work in reducing traffic congestion? Doubtful, seeing that most employees hours vary depending upon their work load.

Can mini-buses be arranged by apartment owners associations to drop/ pick up residents at places of work on weekdays and leisure/ shopping areas on weekends? Plan seems practical, but who will be willing to put it into motion?

Until then we can just ride stationary cycles or lie on our backs and cycle our legs in the air, dreaming pipe-dreams.

The link to the page on the Philips site with the scanned images of newspaper articles about the event:

http://www.bangalore.philips.com/html/oct23_05_var_cycling.html

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Pol IT icking- Def: When a politician fights with an IT company founder. Who is King?

A well known politician and a well known IT company's founder, have shouldered arms. The opening salvos were accusations laid at the latter's doorstep insinuating inaction on certain issues. The latter's response, resignation tendered.

The result: Egg on everyone's face. Shame for every Indian.

The background is the contentious issue of an international airport for Bangalore. Every Bangalorean worth his salt, knows for how long the bickering by politicians over the issue of the location of Bangalore's new international airport went on. How politicians surely bought land areas near possible locations, in a bid to make a killing when it finally came up. But how definite was the possibilty of the airport coming up there? Politicians lobbied heavily among themselves to ensure the result.

Finally the location was decided. Progress was slow no doubt. We can depend upon a politician's statement for that. ".... when I stepped down from Prime Ministership..." Do we sense a bit of anger in that phrase? The founder of a leading IT company took the reins of the conglomerate of entities forming the organisation entrusted with setting it going.

Cut to the present:
The leading IT company is lambasted for not 'reserving' jobs for local candidates.
The leading IT company is lambasted for 'reserving' land for its use.
The leading IT company's founder is personally attacked through the media.

If we reserve political jobs for only honest, qualified people, maybe we can develop a better political system?

Have we questioned the land bought by large hotels, restaurant chains in prime areas? How did they acquire it? Was there any political influence in that?

IT companies surely need to plan their development. They need to plan, acquire land, draw building plans, and then only build. They expand to satisfy customer demands. Can they develop like politicians do?
Politicial plan for growth:- Wake up one day, chop a tree, construct a building in its place, decide building is unviable, go back to sleep.

Can any business do that?

The pressure must have been tremendous on the IT company founder, but has he done the right thing by resigning? He could have easily issued a rebuttal like his company did. Was it done as anyway he's retiring from a long and illustrious career next year and this would have been an unnecessary burden for him?

The jury is still out.

The true test of leaders is in tough times, and these are tough times for Bangalore, Karnataka, India and its people.

-Sunil

Would you attend the I.T. fair?

It appears that the Bangalore Forum for I.T. (BFIT) consisting of twenty leading IT companies and their heads are going ahead with the boycott of the I.T. fair.

But what about the thousands others like ourselves who are citizens of Bangalore? What recourse do we have? How many of us who are regular attendees at such fairs have thought of skipping it? Can we not register our silent protest by our non-attendance and inform others not to attend? After all a fair's popularity depends upon the number of visitors. How many are going to hold banners outside the fair and showcase for visitors to the fair, the problems plaguing our infrastructure?

What are you going to do about IT? What are your thoughts? Leave your comments/ suggestions.

-Sunil

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Collapse and Chaos!- An extremely smelly issue!!


Collapse and chaos

What was to happen when an old sanitary line was blasted with water at high-pressure for over several days? A final collapse as it succumbed to pressure!!

This situation led angry motorists to cry themselves hoarse as they lambasted hapless traffic police personnel who were setting up barricades and who were forced to reverse their pet one-ways. It was lucky that the collapse didn’t claim any victims through injuries or deaths. The BWSSB has now swung into action replacing the old sanitary line with a larger, newer line.

This will come as a relief to residents living downhill, notably residents of Hayes Road and D’Souza Road, who for several days have been patiently bearing the presence of a large sewerage clearance machine at the junction of Residency Road and Hayes Road, disrupting traffic and causing an extremely smelly situation especially for the residents of D’Souza Road, as the sewage water outflow was let out during the process of blasting it through the sewers and the smelly water and sludge following the slope of the roads, collected on D’Souza Road, for several days while sanitary engineers blasted their way through, until relief came to the residents when the line finally gave way. The engineers were preoccupied with the problem of clearance of the blockage and not interested in where the sewerage outflow was going. There was no plan nor scheme in place to collect the sewerage in a separate device/ machine. Meanwhile residents of D’Souza Road and Hayes Road were forced to go about their normal business, while wading through sewerage water or driving through it.

The stink and filth will hopefully no more wend its way downhill, though rainwater will continue flooding D’Souza Road, courtesy of a leading IT company that acting as a generous benefactor a few years earlier gave a ‘gift’ to Hayes Road on which its office is located. The gift consisted of:

1) Pavement barriers.
2) Of course the sealing up of storm water drain inlets on Hayes Road..
3) Re-tarring of the road.
4) Changing the camber or sloping of the road while re-tarring so that water doesn’t flow on the surface of Hayes Road, but is diverted into D’Souza Road.
5) A slight encroachment on the pavement by their power unit.


While the replacement of the drain will cause a temporary annoyance to angry motorists, it will come hopefully as a relief to the residents from smelly sewerage but not rainwater.

-Sunil Pichamuthu

Monday, October 17, 2005

Let a dead dog lie OR It is a dog’s life and a dog’s death!!

Let a dead dog lie OR It is a dog’s life and a dog’s death!!

The recent festivities in Bangalore were joyous occasions for some, and not so joyous for others including our animal friends. Rains lashed Bangalore with the onset of the north-east monsoon, with predictable results- flooded roads, clogged drains and sewers, tree falls and overall a complete collapse of the city infrastructure, which the government and the IT industry have promised to rectify working together.

When ordinary men die, it makes news, but when less than ordinary animals die, it doesn’t deserve even a passing mention in newspapers. On the day Ayudha Puja was being celebrated in Bangalore, the dead body of a stray dog was seen on Richmond Road. The day before rains had lashed Bangalore. The body of the stray dog lay with gritted fangs near the foot of an electrical junction box and a light pole located in front of the office of a leading IT company- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The location is an area that gets easily flooded at the drop of a hat and the fall of a raindrop. Rainwater and electricity appeared to have joined hands to deal a blow to the stray dog from which it never recovered. It could have very easily been the body of a human stretched out there in the agony of a death struggle. That would have been published in large photos in local papers.

But the 'unknown' stray dog had to lie there, with no one to pay homage to it, apart from people passing by who would try and avoid going near it because the cause of its death was 'unknown'. It laid there, its body bloating with each passing hour, its upturned eyes staring sightlessly at the sun and moon bathing its body in their light while passing over it at least twice or thrice. This was no highwayman shot down like a dog on the highway, but a stray dog, whose only sin was to be born in a city called Bangalore, where Animal Birth Control programs (ABC) do not seem to have an effect on the population of strays, which lead a life of extreme danger. Has Man’s best friend unnecessarily sacrificed its life to try and bring to the attention of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) (a fancy term for the unfancied city corporation), what flooding can do??

The pavement in front of the AMD office was also covered by a large load of sand dumped on the pavement forcing unwilling pedestrians to take to the flooded road and getting drenched by vehicles passing through the water, while trying to maintain a distance between them and the body of the stray dog.

The incident brings to light several shortcomings in Bangalore’s systems. The fact that garbage clearance and other corporation personnel passed it regularly for at least two to three days in a row without any attempt to remove its body indicates the lack of concern the corporation has for the health of Bangalore’s citizens. The leakage of electricity is a dangerous thing in itself. Now we come to the flooding itself.

Can IT companies that threaten to boycott events in order to get sops from the government be held at fault? The pavement in front of the AMD office has been paved with interlocking pavers. These stones need to be laid in a bed of sand. Needless to say this shows signs of collapsing at parts into the drain below. The people doing the paving have sealed off the drain inlets so the rainwater can’t enter the drain in front of the AMD office, while a gap in the pavement just between the AMD office and the next building also housing an IT company goes uncovered, posing a danger to pedestrians! Why couldn’t it be covered? Is it because it lies in no-man’s land between two IT companies? The loose paving slabs in front of that IT company have holes in them, ostensibly for letting rainwater through, which functions perfectly only when the road is flooded and the rain water covers the pavement. These loose slabs act like a dam’s crest gates. When the remodelled drain below owing to its reduced capacity is turgid with water, the slabs are forced back by the vengeful waters, and the rainwater is released, while creating a watery trap for the unwary road-user.

All this occurs while government officials and IT honchos pat themselves while they praise public-private partnership.

-Sunil Pichamuthu

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

IT industry and politics- hand in hand

IT industry and politics- hand in hand

After some aggressive posturing by IT head honchos, its back to normal for them as the Govt.
has appeased them with a few short-term measures and conciliatory gestures.

The claim of the IT industry to represent the people has been proven to be false. The main focus has been solely on roads travelled by them, and not towards the overall development of Bangalore. Whether the long-term projects are completed or not, the short-term measures have been done to soothe the IT industry while the ordinary people continue to struggle to stay afloat on flooded roads.

Soon after the IT industry grievances were well advertised in top papers, the sluggish
government machinery swung into action. Paving slabs were overturned, a 'few drains' were
dredged or cleared. Pot-holes on roads that were leading to 'leading IT companies' or on
which IT companies were located were filled in.

The rest remains in its original state of neglect. Drains leading to the freshly cleared
drains remain unscathed, and continue gathering silt to dump into the cleaned drains. Paving
slabs removed on roads minus IT companies lie where they were thrown. Rain water is diverted off 'IT lanes' into 'common citizens lanes'!! Drains on IT lanes are sealed off, as there is
no necessity for drain inlets on those roads since the rain water is diverted onto the
surface of convenient side lanes nearby.

Bob Hoekstra, Narayana Murthy and the rest of the IT heads continue travelling in their
limousines to their destinations while the backwash of the IT companies posturing continues
battering the common citizens of Bangalore, whose only claim to fame is their payment of tax
to maintain the roads of Bangalore in a continued state of neglect.

Radio City's traffic jam warnings will need to be complemented with warnings for pedestrians
of missing pavement slabs, so that they know which pavements to avoid.

IT industry and Politics are turning out to be the same monster wearing different hats.