Poor governance and corruption preventing startup magnet Bengaluru from achieving its full potential: TV Mohandas Pai

TV Mohandas Pai

Poor infrastructure has been Bengaluru’s bane for many years now, with little being done to enhance the quality of life. While many other Indian cities also have critical infra woes, gridlocked Bengaluru’s unpredictable and snail-paced traffic can have a crippling effect not just on productivity but also on one’s health. Despite all the troubles, its position as the country’s startup capital is still unrivalled, thanks to its appetite for innovation. Leading venture capitalist TV Mohandas Pai, who has been a long-time critic of Bengaluru’s infrastructure issues, believes the time has come for the city to be governed by 5 mayors, not one.

Excerpts from an interview:

Bengaluru’s population is now at 1.3 crore, growing at over 3% annually. However, infrastructure development in the city has not kept pace, with the number of private vehicles doubling to 10 million in a decade. The result is that Bengaluru, despite its status as a start-up magnet, has become a difficult city to live in.

Bengaluru’s biggest issue is the lack of adequate governance. Every city should have a proper governance mechanism where citizens can interact with representatives to make sure the quality of life goes up. That’s how cities have come up globally. In India, we have a three-tier governance system that involves the state, city and the panchayat. While governance of the state and panchayat has improved, the same in cities has fallen short.

Except in places like Ahmedabad, Chennai and Mumbai, city governance elsewhere in the country has been fraught with several issues. In Bengaluru we have a city council comprising 200 representatives now, which may increase, and a mayor who is elected every year. The representatives don’t have adequate powers to govern the city. The city has become too big for them to govern. Further, the city governance has been captured by some real estate brokers who have become corporators. There is deep corruption in the system.

Bengaluru doesn’t seem to get enough support from the state government, though its contribution to the state exchequer is immense.

The state government seems to be apprehensive of appointing a full-time mayor for Bengaluru as that person may become very powerful, may be even as powerful as the chief minister, as it contributes substantially to Karnataka’s total GDP. The mayor, however, doesn’t have adequate powers as things stand now. The city council’s powers are also curtailed and they end up collecting only property tax.

The representatives from Bengaluru to the state assembly stand at only 28 out of a total of 224, even though the city has a population of 1.3 crore out of Karnataka’s total population of 6.5 crore. So, Bengaluru doesn’t have enough political clout. You can have sufficient political clout only when we have enough representatives. They take taxes out of Bengaluru and use it for rural causes as that’s where the votes are.

There seems to be a lack of political will to do something for Bengaluru’s infrastructure.

Bengaluru is a very rich city where most politicians have a finger in the real estate pie. Why are the roads bad? It’s because the money doesn’t reach the doors. There’s only lip service. Tar brought from Mangalore, I’m told, gets adulterated by the time it gets to Bengaluru. Lack of political will is another problem. Chief ministers like H.D Kumaraswamy and B.S. Yeddyurappa may have a base in Bengaluru but their political base is outside. Only SM Krishna did something for Bengaluru when he was the CM. Hopefully the current chief minister Basavaraj Bommai will do something for the city.

Corruption runs deep in the system and it’s not easy to cleanse.

It's important to expose people who are corrupt. It doesn’t matter which government is in power, corruption is increasing every year. Bengaluru’s real estate market is second largest in the country after Mumbai. Many of the political leaders are in the real estate business. They want portfolios like PWD, urban affairs, corporation etc.

But we have no urban planners in the corporation. They don’t have the skills or a proper plan or the will to enforce it. Rule of law is broken in Karnataka. Take a bribe and you may get caught but how many are punished? All projects (roads, bridges) are delayed. These projects have become money making rackets.

They bid for these projects, get advance payments, bribes are paid, work starts, then fight for escalation and after that nobody cares. Our metro rail project is delayed, as there is no proper project management. We need 250 km of metro rail in the city but unfortunately, we are 10 years behind.

What’s the solution?

We need Bengaluru to be divided into 5 corporations – central, east, west, north, south - to be run by 5 mayors. That’s how we can get people closer to governance. We need a state financial commission which will enable devolution of financial powers. We need a metropolitan planning authority that will co-ordinate the efforts various agencies; that should be a centralised agency with the chief minister being part of it. This body should govern the entire planning department.

Also, we should look to bring in citizen representation in corporations. There has to be nominations plus elections. Many eminent citizens may not want to contest elections. We need to nominate some of them to the governing council. We should also look to create an anti-corruption body for the city. Judicial capacity should also be made adequate.

Despite all the troubles, Bengaluru remains one of the global hotbeds of tech talent with unicorns being born every month.

Bengaluru’s infrastructural issues are due to bad governance. Our lack of mobility is a result of poor planning. Our roads are bad due to corruption.

Bengaluru has many things going for it, despite all the problems. We have the best tech talent, sophisticated industries, a very good airport and some of the best institutions. However, our public transport is poor and I’m told diesel gets siphoned off and people make money that way. They don’t want electric buses as they are metered.

It’s time for the citizens to march on the streets and protest. They should demand improvement in governance. If Bengaluru had good infrastructure, mobility and governance in place, think where it could have gone. Have we reached our full potential as a city? We haven’t. That’s the problem.