The Traffic Coordination Committee met on February 10, 2010, and took some very far-reaching decisions (as reported in newspapers). One of them, namely to turn the newly renovated city bus stand at K.R.Circle into a tonga and cycle stand, appears to be arbitrary and without adequate application of mind. This is a typical example of knee-jerk planning to which our city of Sir M.Visveswaraiah fame is becoming increasingly prone.
Incidentally, the ownership of the area of the city bus stand is in legal dispute, and KSRTC should not have been allowed to spend Rs.14 crore of public funds without government ownership being finally established. Besides this, what kind of overall city planning perspective can there possibly be when KSRTC is permitted to spend Rs.14 crore on renovating the city bus-stand while MCC watches, and not long after it is spent and the renovation is completed, the Traffic Coordination Committee issues an ultimatum to KSRTC to shift the bus stand? Is not KSRTC under the same Government of Karnataka? Which politician and official are responsible for planning in the City of Mysore? Who is responsible for loss of Rs.14 crore?
MCC Commissioner Mr. K.S.Raikar is reported to have said that it is not a question of Rs.14 crores but of conserving the heritage zone by preventing dust and pollution. When KSRTC proposed renovating the city bus stand, did not MCC know that it was right next-door to the Amba Vilas Palace? And speaking of heritage, can MCC explain why the mall building at Makkaji Chowka was permitted despite flouting heritage building height norms of RCDP-2011 as pointed out by the Heritage Expert Committee constituted by Government of Karnataka? Will the thousands of cars visiting the upcoming mall cause less dust and pollution or road congestion than a few hundred buses? Worse, the Makkaji Chowka mall construction is even now proceeding at night (so as to be conveniently ignored by officials) in spite of a High Court stay. Has MCC no interest in upholding the High Court order?
Precisely because of such haphazard planning, non-governance and mis-governance, it has been MGP's repeated plea over many years to the government to form an Apex Committee for Mysore City, headed by the District-in-Charge Minister with the DC as Member Secretary and all heads of various offices in Mysore as its members, to plan and coordinate all civic works. But this has fallen on deaf ears. We have seen a bus stand in the JK Grounds proposed and dropped several times, and likewise other schemes proposed by visiting ministers. All this confusion and unnecessary agitations among the public would have been avoided by forming an empowered Apex Committee, which would also be accountable to the people of Mysore.
The question inevitably arises whether confusion, non-accountability and non-transparency go towards encouraging corruption, for which Karnataka is competing for first place with Bihar. Let it be known that the public is watching, even though the majority may be silent.
Maj Gen S.G. Vombatkere (Retd), President, Mysore Grahakara Parishat