An open letter to Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

Dear Shri Siddaramaiah,

I write today as a member of Parliament representing Bangalore - also as a citizen of Bangalore and an angry witness to the city's decline into chaos being run and exploited by a nexus of corrupt and vested interests.

I have written to you earlier on many occasions drawing your attention to the issues facing the city and have urged you to step in and change the direction of the city. But you have till date done little or nothing for our city by way of cleaning up the city and tackling the rampant corruption.

The issue of DK Ravi's death and the resultant outrage and widespread citizen protests have put the spotlight on the rampant corruption, non-transparency, and vested interests driving the city's governance. While investigations will tell us about cause of the tragic, needless death of this officer, the issue needs to be focused on is the real reason for citizen anger over his death - it's not how he died, but what he lived for that should be the real focus. He lived to take on vested interests fearlessly- a demand that the citizens make of you, as their chief minister.

I am writing to also caution you on people's intolerance for this kind of rampant loot and conflict of interest that is going on in Bangalore. I wish to respectfully remind you about the fate of many in the Congress-led UPA government and the government itself as a consequence of brazen corruption and ignoring calls for change from people when they were made. The reality of today's politics and democracy is that no political movement or government can survive with the loss of trust of the people they are supposed to serve. Your government was elected to be for all people, by people and of the people and not of vested interests, by vested interests and of vested interests as the perception seems to be increasingly.

Throughout these years I have represented Bangalore, I have urged a zero tolerance to corruption with a new approach to governance reforms. I urge you to immediately implement the following steps to fulfill your responsibility as CM and head of government:

1. Make land deals and contracts fully transparent: Public contracts and land notification/de-notification are increasingly becoming the principle causes of corruption and political funding. Your government has done nothing to change this and indeed can be accused of furthering and continuing the process even more to benefit key contractors, real-estate projects and builders. Complete transparency in both contracting and land deals is a must, including regular audit by CAG of how taxpayer/public money and land is being used by the government. There must be a complete ban on ad-hoc notification and de-notification process and such de-notifications must be allowed only for justifiable and legally provable public interests such as schools, parks, hospitals etc and never for private commercial interests.

2. A planned approach to Bangalore's development: Adopt a statutory development plan through transparent public consultation. Vested interests, corrupt politicians and bureaucrats do not like plans as they allow no room for discretion, deals or favouritism. The lack of a statutory plan is directly responsible for the lack of transparency in governance, an ad-hoc contracting system and the almost complete capture of development by money, vested interests and corruption. Your government's lack of effort in this only sends a message to encourage vested interests. A government committed to ending corruption must strive towards a comprehensive, multi-year, statutory plan, formed through proper citizen consultation.

3. Reconstitute and activate the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC): The MPC is an effective way to counter the discretion of elected representatives and administrative authorities. Yet, the sad irony is that your government has failed to capitalise on ushering in transparency through the MPC. While your government made initial steps by electing a MPC last year, it turned out to be a defunct body, having not met even a single time since it was elected and the 20 elected members were not even allotted a room to meet in! As the ex-officio Chairperson of the MPC, I urge you to ensure the new MPC, reconstituted post the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections is allowed the freedom and resources for its independent and effective functioning.

4. Create a code of conduct for elected representatives and bureaucrats: I say this with conviction - behind every builder and contractor in Bangalore is an MLA or minister acting in conflict of interest. You should make it illegal and criminal for those in public life or government to benefit from government contracts or any public assets. Elected representatives must be warned that they need to ensure clean dealings and disclose any conflict of interest, or they will end up like several ministers in the UPA did - on the wrong side of the law. Bureaucrats and staff in city government agencies including commissioner - BBMP must be held accountable for corruption and/or negligence where these cases are detected.

5. Stop rewarding law breakers through schemes like Akrama Sakrama: The misuse of land and dealings in land lie at the crux of corrupt politics in Bangalore. With legislations like the Akrama Sakrama, the government is encouraging and actively rewarding this culture of corruption. With the Akrama Sakrama in its current form, the message sent is amply clear: It is better to be a lawbreaker than a law-abiding citizen. I have repeatedly urged you to consider a revised proposal for Akrama Sakrama that ensures it's only for the poor and not the builders. If the government is in genuinely concerned about the poor, it must revisit the Akrama Sakrama Scheme to ensuring a strong qualification criteria to ensure only the poor and truly deserving benefit. Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Water Board (BWSSWB) and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) are similarly being looted by pilferage by many politically connected projects. The government must conduct an audit of these leakages and pilferages, because law-abiding citizens are ending up paying for these acts of corruption.

6. Conduct BBMP Elections on time: City and citizens deserves good elected corporators. Trifurcation is neither the solution to the city's corruption nor its governance ills. Trifurcation is not to be used as an excuse to delay BBMP elections. If it is sought to be done, there will be resistance to this from citizenry and people will not remain silent to political manipulation and tricks being played by political parties.

I urge you to meet your promise of good governance and initiate these changes to clean up Bangalore. Recent developments have signaled a perceptible change in politics in our country, a gradual shift towards a political system where the corrupt simply have no place. This kind of corruption is no longer acceptable in a new political system. As recent history has shown, even a former prime minister and senior ministers cannot escape the citizens' desire to rid themselves of corruption.

I look forward to your early response on this.

Yours sincerely,