Corruption - Bangalore is a lot worse than I thought...
We Mallus are very critical of our home state... We tend to see the negative side of everything...
But are we doing so with an impartial mind... ?
Read the incident below - this is my own story- and decide for yourself...
I live in Bangalore, off Sarjapur Main Road. This comes around the South East corner of Bangalore, just outside the Bangalore city limits. The area is under a village panchayath named "Kasavanahalli".
The road which leads to my house is owned by the Village Panchayath. It used to be a road a couple of years ago. Over the last few years, due to the increased traffic, the road ceased to exist, and now nobody will believe that there existed a tarred road there. During rains, the road gets filled with water, almost knee deep in some areas. I manage to ride through the road simply because I know the exact location of all the potholes on the road.
There are a few new constructions coming up in that area. To market those, they need to improve the roads. They joined hands with the developer of the other plots nearby, and placed an offer to the village panchayath saying that they will build the road, to the panchayath's specifications, free of cost to the village panchayath.
The village panchayath officials rejected the proposal!!!
They wanted the money to be handed over to them, and the project executed by them!!! It's anybody's guess as to what that means. Executing the project by the builders means that the village will get a road, with 100% of the budget going into construction. No cuts, no kickbacks, no bribes, and no money going into the village panchayath officials, because they are not handling the money.
I can't imaging such a thing happening in Kerala. If something like this happens, all the village panchayath officials will be crucified by the media. They will be all over in "Aniyara" and "Sakshi"...
So I guess, even though I criticise the corruption and polititians in Kerala, the situation is much better over there...
