Arguing that there are enough financial and procedural discrepancies in the Tender SURE (Specifications of Urban Road Execution) project to call for a legal opinion, members of a few citizens’ groups may take the issue to court.
At a panel discussion on ‘Elite capture of governance in Bengaluru – a case of Tender SURE project’, organised by the Forum for Urban Governance and Commons on Wednesday, C.G. Hungund, member of State Human Rights Commission, said that development should be inclusive.
He also related how the Namma Metro stations first started functioning with fancy coffee and magazine shops, but did not have restrooms or drinking water.
The panel deliberated on the way a Tender SURE project was approved in meetings attended by industrialists and bureaucrats.
None of the councillors from the BBMP were included in the planning process even though the cash strapped civic body is sharing the cost of certain phases of the project.
Activist Nandana Reddy alleged that corporates had started taking over the city, even supporting certain political candidates.
‘Elite version’
“We are also battling an elite version of the city that the upper middle classes are proud of, especially when visiting cousins come from abroad and praise the airport,” she said, adding that street vendors had been displaced while developing certain roads, and that the government could have at least rehabilitated them.
