[ಕನ್ನಡ ಅನುವಾದ ಶೀಘ್ರದಲ್ಲೇ ಬರಲಿದೆ — Kannada translation coming soon]
Dear Mr. Prime Minister, We are writing to you on an urgent subject to help you to keep your promise you made on the Independence Day. In many respects, this is a subject that should have been solved at the local level without involving the Prime Minister of India. But your involvement may electrify the whole political system and send a very powerful signal all over India. You had promised that you would devote your energy to improve the delivery system through better governance. You would agree with us that if officers and heads of institutions are transferred at frequent interval, the governance of those institutions will certainly suffer. Here in Mysore, we have such an example that is taking place right now and we need your assistance to stop it. Mysore Urban Development Authority has a very important role in the development of our city as a heritage city. We had a dedicated IAS officer, Sri Pankaj Kumar Panday with a commitment to bring about reform to improve all round governance and also to implement the rule of law. In recent memory we had not come across such a committed individual. Even before completing six months, he has been transferred. No explanation has been given by the government for such an untimely and irresponsible transfer. The Deputy Chief Minister who is the minister-in-charge claims that he does not know any thing about the transfer. At the same time there are rumours that because of the complaints made by his supporters against the officer he was transferred. There are also rumours that it was the Chief Minister who was responsible for the transfer since he wanted to have an able administrator for his constituency. Irrespective of which version is true, it is Mysore which will suffer as a result of this transfer. Our NGO with more than 700 members, has been spearheading efforts to improve governance for more than fifteen years. Recently we have launched a campaign ìSAVE MYSOREî to involve larger segment of the population. We are optimistic that you would come to our rescue and reverse this transfer. This is indeed a small step for you, but it has enormous significance all over India. Yours truly, Bhamy V. Shenoy Convener, MGP SAVE MYSORE: IS THERE A POLITICAL WILL TO SOLVE PIG MENACE? (Aug 22, 2004) Dr. Bhamy V. Shenoy, Mysore Grahakar Parishat For the last fourteen years, Mysore Grahakar Parishat has been dealing with the City Corporation to get rid of pig menace. Several meetings have been held with a succession of commissioners, mayors, corporators, MLAs etc. Petitions have been written to the Urban Development Ministry
and Chief Minister. Promises and assurances were given by our netas and babus only to be forgotten later. It is not that the authorities have not tried to solve the problem. Pigs have been captured and taken en mass in lorries to a distant place. They have been even shot at. Pig breeders have been promised pig rearing sites. Many threatening press releases asking pig breeders not to let pigs roam around the city have been issued. Still the pig menace is not just continuing, but is spreading to every part of the city. Even in a relatively clean place like Manasgangotri, one can find pigs roaming around. Why a life threatening problem potentially affecting thousands of residents with a simple solution has not been implemented? Economics of pig rearing. Breeding pig is a big business. This is what the corporation authorities interested in solving the problem should realize. On a conservative basis, assuming the per capita consumption of pork is one half kg, per week and only 50,000 people (just less than 5% of Mysore’s population) eat pork, the annual requirement is 1300 tons of pork for Mysore. To supply this amount of pork, one needs to raise 26,000 pigs. Pork costs between Rs 40 to 60 in the market. If we assume an average price of Rs 45 per kg, annual revenues to supply pork is about Rs 6.00 crores. Since there is demand to supply pork to other regions, and our corporation is willing to allow the rearing of pigs inside the city, pork business can easily grow to more than Rs 10 crores. This is more than what the city collects as property tax. Since it costs nothing to rear pigs which grow on freely available garbage in our heritage city in every corner, a family which can breed say 20 pigs can easily earn Rs 45000. It is often mentioned that there are 200 families rearing pigs in Mysore. This translates into a family earning Rs 3 lakhs per year on average. Is it difficult to share some of this booty with our nethas and babus to keep them quiet as often happens in most trades. It is this powerful economic force which has hindered the city from winning the war against the pigs. It is easy to estimate the economic benefits to those who benefit from pig breeding in an objective way. But the cost to 10 lakh population of Mysore through brain fever, Japanese Encephalitis, road accidents is enormous and can be only subjective. Unfortunately no reliable data is available on any of these harmful effects of pigs to estimate this cost. In any case, the most basic question is should we risk death on account of pigs? Careful preparation needed to wage a war against pig menace. The above economic analysis should convince any one why we have not been able to solve the pig menace despite having the full force of legal remedies available to us. The invisible hand of pig lobby is backed by vote bank politics. Fortunately today we have a mayor who is determined to win this war. The corporation has tried to learn lessons from the experience of Hubil-Dharwad, Bijapur, and Hyderbad in getting rid of pigs. Still, it is better to prepare an elaborate war plan. Just few press releases to implement the rule of law or threat of shooting pigs or taking police help or promise of giving land and offering hotel garbage will not solve this problem. All these have been tried before.
It is true that an average family may be earning Rs 3 lakhs from rearing pigs. But out of 200 families, there could be some who are below the poverty line. The corporation should collect information on the real conditions of those BPL families and draw up an assistance plan. The corporation should draw up a step by step action plan taking into consideration the possible stay orders by supporters of pig breeders, indirect pressure by political nethas to maintain their vote banks, potential law suits claiming human rights violations etc. Corporation should start working closely with the police department on contingency plan. A special pig menace removal committee should be planned under the chairmanship of Mayor consisting of bureaucrats as well political leaders of all parties. That committee should consider various scenarios and develop contingency plans to meet them. The mayor should present his plan to the council and get their approval. With good planning and strong political will, pig menace can indeed be removed from Mysore. SAVE MYSORE: AN UPDATE. (Aug 30, 2004) Bhamy V. Shenoy Mysore Grahakar Parishat formally launched the “SAVE MYSORE” campaign along with other like minded NGOs on July 19th. Original goal was to collect signatures from one lakh Mysoreans within a month. From a population of 10 lakhs out of which more than 70% are literate, it was felt that getting one lakh signature should not be all that difficult. In the event it was not so. Since the goal has not been reached so far, the last date for collecting signatures has been advanced to September 30th. As campaign was progressing and hundreds of volunteers were spread throughout the city were collecting signature, a new initiative to erect banners with a simple message of “SAVE MYSORE” was taken up. Here also MGP thought that at least thousand concerned people will come forward to erect such banners. However so far only slightly more than 100 banners have been erected at houses, petrol bunks, hotels, Rotary Schools etc. During the last six weeks only about 40,000 have signed the petitions where they had to indicate about which six problem areas they have lodged complaints with any authority and what are their three priorities. The six problem areas are identified by MGP were: Water supply, Garbage and sewerage, SAS, Pigs and stray animals, Roads and traffic, illegal buildings. Signatories also had the option of specifying any other problem. Not surprisingly so far, participants in the campaign have also endorsed these very problems giving slightly high priority to water supply, garbage collection and pigs. MGP expected that most of the residents will readily sign the petitions. It was not to be. Some are afraid to sign the petition lest they be punished by the authorities later. Few felt that nothing will come out of this type of campaign and they did not want to waste their time. Some even thought that by signing the petition they would be making a political statement and they did not want to be part of any such campaign.