murali772 - 10 January, 2013 | Civic amenities | Bangalore | Citizen Reports | public spaces | environment | City development | public offices

I occasioned to visit the newly constructed "Kandaya Bhavana", located next to Cauvery Bhavan (I presume Kandaya, in Kannada, means registration). In keeping with the recent architectural trends, this building has also been constructed largely of glass, Aluminium, and Steel, with the flooring being of the costliest variety of marble, which will put even a 5-star hotel to shame. Though, there is presently an appearance of 'swankiness' to the building, I am not sure how appropriate such stylings are to the needs of such a public office.

Besides, unlike in the case of the IT sector complexes (where such trends are de-rigour these days), a peek into the Kandaya Bhavana will show you files stacked up against the glass walls almost upto the ceiling (perhaps, the racks/ shelves have yet to arrive), meaning essentially that the operations are still a very long way to being digitised.

Another aspect, most notable, is that almost all sign boards, notice boards, name boards, etc are in Kannada alone. This is the position as of now. However, most of these notices appeared to be temporary - quite a few of them stuck on the glass walls - and, perhaps when the moving in is complete, the other official language of the state, namely English (check here), will receive its rightful place too. Otherwise, Mary-Kom is going to have a serious problem (check this). Besides, there didn't appear to be a reception or a help-desk, because of which I had to go around asking people for the office I was looking for, to eventually realise that I was misled by an official elsewhere into coming here in the first place.

The saddest part is that, even as the building is perhaps just a few months old, the walls (particularly at the stair-case landings) are already paan-stained.

I expect it will not be too long before things reach this stage here too. And, that's also why I keep suggesting that the maintenance of all of these public buildings/ spaces be made over to professional contractors, rather than being entrusted to the PWD, as they presently are. Also, isn't it time government involved institutions like the Lalit Kala Academy, Urban Arts Commission, Bangalore Environment Trust, Namma Bengaluru Foundation, etc, all functioning in the city, in deciding on how our public buildings/ spaces are developed/ designed (on the lines of New York's Design Trust), rather than leaving them all to the PWD? (for more on that, click here)

This was a quick visit, which actually didn't serve its purpose. As such, I did not have time to check the toilets, the condition of which according to me provides for a proper measure of a public space. May be a PRAJA team needs to do a full scale audit - like here.

Muralidhar Rao

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