|
On the "Road" to Change
How can President's Rule in Karnataka touch the lives of its people, in a way which will make an immediate and definite impact? A good beginning would be to bring a semblance of order to the chaotic traffic conditions in the city, AND to discipline the autorickshaw drivers who are a law unto themselves. Two small (?) deeds that will make His Excellency Rameshwar Thakur a household name in the State and earn the gratitude of the people for a long time to come.
Allow a problem to persist and see how it becomes a mountain from a molehill. That's exactly how Bangalore's traffic situation has grown by leaps and bounds, over the years, to become the gargantuan task that it is today. With thousands of new vehicles on the roads every day, jostling for severely cramped space with old and creaking vehicles, of all shapes and sizes, on roads that look like they exist only to showcase designer potholes, driven by people who are in a race to get to the finish line, in any which way they can, driving in Bangalore is the fastest way to get to a hospital. If only the Governor can pull up the city police and get them to manage the traffic better, it would be the day when we could re-discover our beloved old garden city. A lot of people say it is easier said than done, but Bangalore is not Tokyo, far less New York, and if the administration there have been able to turnaround the situation, indeed, why can't we?
And then, the automen. If there is any tribe that lives within the city, but is outside the confines of law, then it has to be them autorickshaw drivers. For any outsider coming to Bangalore, the city is like a home away from home, or more precisely, a (better) home away from home, except for the three-wheel drive that exists mostly on paper.
|
|
|
By a conservative estimate, you need to approach at least six autorickshaws to succeed to find one, during off hours, and double that during peak hours! In the light of such callous behaviour from them, it is quite simply the height of absurdity to think up hare brained schemes like dial-a-auto. When they thumb their nose at you and flout the law right in front of the policeman in public, only a moron will believe that an SMS will fetch a better response from these arrogant drivers. Nothing will please the long suffering public more than taming and bringing these callous, devil-may-care types to book. The Governments of the day, have utterly failed to address this singular nuisance that the public suffers day in and day out. If the Hon'ble Governor can address these two simple problems, the public will remember his name for long after his tenure and be eternally grateful to him.
|
