Southern States - Karnataka

People losing faith in mayoralty

By Our Staff Correspondent

Mysore June 28. There is a gradual erosion of faith among people that the mayor and the deputy mayor will be able to meet their aspirations. This is because successive occupants of the posts have failed to prevent the quality of life from deteriorating in the city.

Though Mysore has had 18 mayors over the years, including T.B. Chikkanna elected on Thursday, civic affairs have not improved, and the situation is sliding from bad to worse everyday. If the past record is any indication, then the state of affairs in Mysore will remain the same at the end of the new Mayor's tenure in May 2003, despite the assurances given by him.

It is customary for every Mayor to "accord top priority" to improving the drinking water situation, maintaining cleanliness, and "striving for the comprehensive development of Mysore". But the citizens in general have ceased to attach any importance to such assurances. The initial enthusiasm marked by "spot visits'' and "inspections'' at various wards by the mayors soon tapers off in the absence of any follow-up action. Lack of autonomy to local bodies and the indifferent officials of the corporation do not call for optimism in expecting any drastic change for the better. Some former mayors, including B.K. Prakash, Srikantaiah, and Narayan, have called for extending the mayor's tenure from the existing one year to five years, as in a few other States. But it is debatable whether merely extending the term of the Mayor will bring in a qualitative change in managing civic affairs.

A section of the citizens perceive that blaming the "short tenure' was only an excuse given by them to cover up their collective failure in taking steps to carry out even necessary works, including clearing garbage, improving roads, and ensuring water supply and streetlights. In the absence of talent and trained manpower, the councillors are expected to strike alliances with voluntary organisations working on garbage clearance and others.

But devoid of a progressive outlook, the councillors feel threatened by such groups and raise obstructions to any initiative by them. Worse, the councillors have given civic affairs short shrift and use it as a launching pad for higher political posts.

The civic issues in Mysore needing urgent attention of the councillors and the mayor are many. Garbage clearance, road repairs, effective maintenance of underground drainage, and preventing dumping of building debris are some of them. The infrastructure package with finances from the Asian Development Bank was supposed to take care of these issues. But people are yet to perceive any tangible results from the package pertaining to roads, drainage, garbage clearance, and others. This negative reaction stems from the fact that these are the core issues confronting the public daily. The road development package in Mysore continues to be mired in controversy, and is behind schedule by more than two years. The work has been taken up in stretches, and by the time one section of the package is complete, the completed portion cries for attention.

Forty-eight important arterial roads, totalling a length of 58 km. in the city, were taken up for improvement, repairs, and upgrading. These roads were identified on the basis of traffic density and to cope with future increase in traffic. But none of the past mayors or the councillors has apprised the citizens of the extent of work completed.Apart from the infrastructure works, there is the key issue of the corporation's finances. A greater portion of the infrastructure package has been completed, and the corporation is supposed to gear up to repay the principal amount with interest.

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