Letter to Editor (TOI) 31.8.05: Bengaluru Mahanaraka Palike!!

Dear Sir, one wonders whether to appreciate the High Court order to BCC to clean up the public toilets or to wonder what our elected representatives and municipal officials are doing? If the petitioner has to move the High Court to get public toilets cleaned up, she would have probably first approached the local municipal officials, then the local corporator and then gone on to the Courts out of sheer frustration. Indeed this is the case with most of the city's maintenance and upkeep. What exactly are the civic officials and elected Corporators doing? The apathy and indifference on their part only indicates that public officials are not accountable and are not assessed on their performance. They get their salary and bribes irrespective of whether they deliver the services or not. If this is the state of affairs and Courts have to step in to stem the rot it is probably time for the Government to supersede the 'Bangalore Mahanaraka Palike' and place the various parts of the city under the stewardship and custody of the Honorable Judges of the High Court. The citizens of Bangalore will be eternally thankful for this!