[ಕನ್ನಡ ಅನುವಾದ ಶೀಘ್ರದಲ್ಲೇ ಬರಲಿದೆ — Kannada translation coming soon]
Overnight transfer of two IAS officers: will it be a tipping point to Mysuru version of “Arab Spring” ? Bhamy V. Shenoy1 Political leaders and bureaucrats must have thought that they resolved the media hyped tussle between DC, Rohini Sindhuri and MCC Commissioner, Shilpa Nag by taking an easy way out by transferring both of them. But we knew all along that the real purpose was to stop the land grabbing activities exposed in T M Vijay Bhaskar’s report. To achieve this unstated goal, they exploited this perceived differences to their advantage. What was not anticipated by the decision makers was the likely reaction from the public. They must have thought that Mysureans will remain quiet as in the past and soon forget the sordid chapter in Mysuru’s history. But they were dead wrong. I am sure that politicians must have been surprised by the anger and frustration expressed by netizens on the social network. It is gaining momentum as days go by. A change.org petition drive started by a concerned citizens’ group has already attracted signatures from more than 135000 – a rarely seen phenomenon. To my pleasant surprise I have also found several activists – young and old are working to use this opportunity to finally expose all those leaders who have amassed enormous wealth over night. While hard working graduates after several years of study are barely able to earn a living, here are some leaders without starting any industry are able to earn crores through corrupt practices. Earlier such frustrations remained only below the surface. Now it is being expressed in petition drives, WhatsApp, exchange of emails and face book conversation in social networks to ask what should be done. Some concerned individuals have come forward to take the initiative of approaching the courts by filing PILs. To my knowledge there are at least two serious attempts to file a PIL in the HIGH court appealing for the reinstatement of Sindhuri to enable her to complete the task she had started. One such PIL is by a young High Court lawyer from Mysuru. 1 Bhamy V. Shenoy is founding working President of Mysore Grahakara Parishat
Another is by a senior semi retired politician with clean record who could not sleep after learning about all the land grabbing activities. All of the above reminds me of Arab Spring which started in Tunisia in 2010 which has changed the political landscape in the Arab land from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya to Syria and Bahrain. It was only a small incident of police ill treating a youth selling vegetables and demanding bribes. Frustrated by such corrupt practices (Like in Mysuru, corruption was rampant in Tunisia), the young vendor set himself on fire and died. To the shock of the world, Tunisians rose in revolt and the long time dictatorial ruler had to leave the country. Now they have democracy there. Will Mysuru be lucky to have our own version of Arab Spring kind of peaceful revolution to first expose and then to prosecute all those involved in land grabbing adapting Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha principle. Such land grabbing has resulted not just in spreading corrupt practices every where, but affected our planned growth of the city. Many of our lakes are on the verge of disappearance (Kukkerhalli and Lingambudhi for example) and some have actually disappeared ( some in Bogadi and Keragalli). Green areas of Mysuru has declined with each successive master plans and we the public have been mute spectators. Will the public finally get up and get involved in this movement? One easy way is to support all those who are getting ready to approach the court seeking justice. There are other ways of writing to CM, seeking the publication of Vijay Bhaskar’s report, filing RTIs to find out what the government has done on the report, etc. Let me end up quoting the inspiring words of Swami Vivekananda. Arise, Awake and Stop not till the goal is reached. Here the goal is to expose land grabbing activities of corrupt and to recover all those properties, start restoring lakes and green belt of Mysuru. (Jun 2021) Chamundi Hill Development: Why are our leaders bent on wasting money? Bhamy V. Shenoy
Way back in the early 90s, when Dr. Kushalappa was conservator of forest in Mysuru some efforts were made to green Chamundi using a Norwegian grant. One should wonder why our leaders did not think of greening ourselves and had to depend on foreign aid. On the other hand as early as in 1994 Karnataka Govt. took interest to sign a BOT (build, operate and transfer) contract for constructing a ropeway on Chamundi Hills with M/S Sikka Traders for Rs. 6.5 crores. Mysureans came to know about the contract only in 2005 and that too when the construction work was about to begin. Then the civil society headed by Mysore Grahakara Parishat launched the Save Chamundi movement. Luckily for Mysureans the project was dropped. Was it because of protest? However when funds were easily available under JNNURM, again efforts were made in 2009 to construct cable car project. Again MGP protested and succeeded in stopping it. Again it was revived in 2012 by Industries Minister Nirani, and then by Tourism Minister Yogeshwar in early 2021. During these times, a project to provide canopy on the steps leading to the top of the hill was mooted and dropped after protest. Whether by coincidence or by ‘Chamudeswari curse’, every minister associated with efforts to disturb the nature has lost his position. For some unknown reasons, ministers are bent on constructing a ropeway which is economically unattractive, environmentally unfriendly and politically controversial. Is it difficult to guess why? However serious attempts by the government started in 2016 to create a concrete jungle in the name of promoting tourism which laid the foundation for the extensive vandalism of the hill. It consisted of multilevel parking (600 cars), commercial complex (116 shops), dormitory, covered queue line for pilgrims, etc costing about Rs. 80 crores. The government could easily raid the temple offerings to meet construction cost and did not have to depend on the state budget.