‘Election 2018: Vote for citizen or vote for new CZR’. This was one of over 10,000 postcards that reached Chief Minister Siddaramaiah last year after the draft notification on Common Zoning Regulations (CZR) for all cities in Karnataka opened the gates for commercial establishments to come up in residential neighbourhoods.
Among the problems that united citizens in Bengaluru, giving rise to citizen-led movements, was that of illegal commercialisation in residential areas.
For groups of residents in various parts of Bengaluru, who have been on the battlefield fighting against illegal commercial establishments in their neighbourhoods, implementation – or non-implementation – of the proposed zoning regulations, as well as the inaction on such establishments in their backyards, has become a matter of a basic right to life.
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The impact of administration on their quality of life, they say, will automatically have a say on who their vote goes to.
Not an issue in 2013
Bengaluru residents say this will be a new element in this year’s elections. The issue of zonal regulation was not even a topic of discussion in 2013 for many citizens, said Somayaji K.V.R., secretary of J.P. Nagar 4th Phase Residents’ Welfare Association.
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“In the last five years, we have seen the government bring out the CZR and the Revised Master Pan 2031 (the objections included procedural ones such as the Bangalore Development Authority making the master plan, instead of the Bangalore Metropolitan Planning Committee, and how the BDA was unable to give clarifications to citizens). These were anti-citizen moves as far as Bengaluru is concerned,” he said.
Pointing out that Bengaluru as a city has issues different from other cities in the State, Mr. Somayaji said citizens here were also now far more aware of issues affecting them, such as traffic, garbage and illegal rooftop bars. “People like me will question the candidates this time and we will know their intention,” he said.
An anti-CZR group, comprising several resident welfare associations formed last year, took their objections directly to Bengaluru MLAs.
Nitin Seshadri, former president of Koramangala third block RWA, who was part of the group, said they managed to meet around 16 city MLAs cutting across party lines in July 2017.
“The problem is two-fold: the law itself and the enforcement of law that exists. We also brought up illegal commercialisation during these meetings and we got an overwhelmingly positive response from most of them. But we don’t know if it was lip sympathy or more than that,” he said.
Missing as an election promise
Though zonal regulation violations or illegal commercialisation is a pitch that not many candidates are selling to voters, Vijayan Menon, Committee member, Citizens’ Action Forum, said it is an election issue for Bengaluru at least, but “not politically aligned”.
“It is not an issue advantageous to any party. But there is definitely a strength in that particular segment concerned about their neighbourhood, and that segment is becoming a vote bank. How MLAs have handled the issue will be a factor in how people vote. Remember, it that does not require an entire constituency to change the outcome in elections. A significant segment is voting on the basis of zonal regulations, so it is a new element and it will affect the final vote,” he said, adding that the segment was spread across Bengaluru in areas including Indiranagar, Koramangala, Malleswaram, Sanjaynagar, Yelahanka, Whitefield, HSR Layout, Banaswadi, JP Nagar in central areas such as Shantinagar.
The reason politicians are not talking about it, said Mr. Menon, is simply because they do not know how to handle it.
“It’s easy for them to say I’ll build metro or a flyover or clean lakes. These are broad statements that don’t mean anything. They should understand urban planning to promise implementation of zonal regulations,” he added.