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BMTC best, BDA worst

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silkboard - 19 October, 2009 | Bangalore | BMTC | BDA | Review | engagement | Others | Participation

Sorry for that catchy headline there. But we, a bunch of nobodies, group of mostly no-namers, have tried reaching out to various local bodies in Bangalore over past year for few things here and there. We have also seen and heard about other citizen's (may or may not be Praja members) attempts at connecting with city's local bodies.

How would I rank them all on responsiveness and accessibility? Now, keep it in mind that they can perhaps not respond to each and every mail they receive. But some do, and some either don't, or take longer to do it. In our attempts here, at least I have never reached out with piece-meal suggestions or self-promoting proposals (pushing "my" ideas or rants), it is usually to ask for info on an active project, or to arrange for some group meetings.

So, for whatever it is worth, based on my experiences, here is how I would rank them on their responsiveness and general attempts at making detailed project information available to citizens.

  1. BMTC
  2. Traffic Police
  3. BMRC
  4. BWSSB
  5. BBMP
  6. BDA

Unfortunately, I don't know of a data based way of measuring this, though we could run a poll to get everyone's "perceptions".

Also, note that I have left out other bodies who we have either not chased that much or are too small (BMLTA/DULT, BESCOM, BMRDA, KSPCB, LDA, Lokayukta etc). So this is not a comprehensive list by any means.

Before I sign off, please do not start on a rant train here - would be nicer to hear your contradictory or supporting episodes.

COMMENTS

Emails proposals / suggestions only

n - 19 October, 2009 - 15:08

Sent to:
BMTC
Transport Commissioner (2 - 2nd one on MV act)
DULT
CM
Response from:
DULT (standardised "we will look into it" reply)
 

The 'unresponsive' image - can be fixed

silkboard - 19 October, 2009 - 16:03

I must pre-empt some questions on why write such a post.

This is not negative, rant etc. As it is, ranking these bodies on the quality of their work and performance is hard due overlapping and unclear responsibilities. Regardless of their performance, a fact is that most of these bodies have an unresponsive image. Public at large thinks of them as being in-accessible and also unhelpful - that is a reality. And most information we have about these bodies is via this mediator called media.

While it can never get perfect (more than 66% of people can never be happy about any given thing - general rule of thumb!), the problem has to be stated first before you start thinking of making things better.

We wouldn't have data to prove this, but I believe that this image has a bearing on ULB's performance. You don't need elaborate structures like 100 ward committees, 1000 RWAs or 10 political parties to get citizen interaction going. Yes, you would get a lot of junk on your public email ids or phone numbers, but it is important to setup systems and process to take in requirements and enquiries from regular citizens.

It is very likely that because you think of ULBs as being inaccessible, you may never take enough interest in highlighting things that can easily be fixed via quick and direct interaction.

Now, for the solutions? Not easy, and got to be careful not to preach high level gyan here.

  • Will require pro-active publishing of information, processes and systems to take in and track all interaction (Citizen-Relationship-Management)
  • IMHO, going down the line of having more NGOs, RWAs etc to mediate is going down the wrong line. Group lobbying is different from encouraging individuals to interact more.
  • Decentralization of power too is a different topic. Organized politics is the perfectly legal way to take interest in local governance. But we are talking about interacting on "execution" and "implementation" matters here (post election stuff).

cheers,

SB

KSRTC and Railways also worst

Vasanth - 21 October, 2009 - 06:08

 I have tried reaching KSRTC and Railways many times. They are also worst, never respond back.

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