Bengaluru's IT Hub Is No Silicon Valley

Dear Government, 

We want no politics. We just want governance. 

We become citizen traffic wardens to manage traffic. We search high and low for solutions to our polluted lakes. We clean up garbage and plead for your regular service. We register to vote and wait on tenterhooks to see if you will send us the voter IDs in time. We wade through three hours of traffic as our families suffer. We watch as those that cannot articulate like we do suffer for basics as no humans should. We plead for you to open up the school intended for school children. 
 This is Whitefield - proudly called the IT hub of Bengaluru and home to Indian and multinational behemoths like TCS, Mindtree, Accenture, IBM and many more. But if you come to Whitefield, you will quickly realise it is no Silicon Valley. No Smart City. We are a landlocked hub of technology that is hard to get into, and harder to get out of. We are potholed roads, haphazardly-managed amenities and polluted lakes. And yet, we are also a pocket of socially-conscious individuals driven to make our communities liveable.
 Manju Mehra was a housewife who went about her daily chores with her young daughter as the sole focus of her life. Until she was inspired to take charge and become part of the solution. Today, she spends 10 hours a day (weekends too) as a traffic warden - managing traffic bottlenecks, pulling up truant drivers, and grappling with containers, school buses and trucks that trundle through narrow roads amid a sea of commuter traffic. She has become a role model for many other citizens to sign up as traffic wardens, don uniforms and support the already-strained traffic police staff on the roads of Whitefield.

Clement Jayakumar is a senior professional in an MNC. Over the last year, he has mobilised support from villagers and techies to transform a run-down park and convert an abandoned government school into a centre of learning. A devout man who once donated generously in places of worship, he has now pledged to instead contribute to paying for water for saplings, electricity bills for the government school and uniforms for the kids.

The Varthur Lake team has long been espousing the cause of the foaming, toxic lake. They have engaged with lake protection activists across the city, and brought siloed government authorities together to propose a plan to prevent sewage and other pollutants from contaminating the lake. They navigate a labyrinth of stakeholders in search of people to champion and progress their cause. 
 A team working on Mobility has moved bus stops away from clogged intersections, spends their days convincing local agencies that roads need fixing, and their late night hours supervising road works once resources are committed.

Bengaluru is the home of tech start-ups. It is also the home of citizens who have a vision for their communities, ideal governance and access to basic amenities for all. We strive for our community but we speak for all of Bengaluru. Give us a Sreedharan to finish our Metro on time. Give us a Rao or Jagadeesan to create a Surat here. Or just let your best officers do their work.

Would it be too much to ask for garbage pick-up services and sewage-free water? Would it be too much to ask for a higher ratio of road to pothole? Must the execution of government works have the lowest bar ever? Can we not lay a road without digging it up in three days? Must we have no pride at all in what we do?

This August, we ask for Freedom again. Freedom from the clutches of corruption, red tape and politics. A freedom for your ethical officers to do their work. Freedom for the people to give you their vision for their land. Freedom for Whitefield to Rise.

Whitefield Rising  |   whitefieldrising.org   |  Twitter @WFRising

Our Call to Action

Show your solidarity by joining this simple but effective campaign

Every Friday: Wear Black Just the top is enough. (Aug 7,14, 21, 28)

Everyday: Tweet! Use #blackfriday, add @CMofKarnataka, @PMOIndia

Aug 22: Vote! Even if the choices on who to vote for are poor. We will have demonstrated our vote bank size

Clarification

The term "Whitefield" is being used to refer to large areas of Mahadevpura because the term has become synonymous with IT, Growth and migration. On the map, the actual Whitefield geography is very small. We are not referring to just that area. 

(Nidhi Pratapneni is a member of Whitefield Rising.) 

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.