[Urbanstudy] TENDERSURE FLOUTS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: EXPERTS

[Vinay Baindur]

http://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/civic/tendersure-flouts-constitutional-rights-experts/articleshow/55002112.cms




TENDERSURE FLOUTS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: EXPERTS
Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Oct 23, 2016, 04.00 AM
[image: TenderSURE flouts constitutional rights: Experts]
*By Nitindra Bandyopadhyay*


The TenderSURE project, packaged well in the name of pedestrian safety and
developing poor quality roads to international standards, has
systematically infringed the constitutional rights of the common public in
an attempt to pave its way to execution averting bureaucratic entangles.

On October 20, as citizens’ group Forum for Urban Governance and Commons
sat to discuss the adverse environmental impact of the project, a can of
worms was upturned over the way it was executed. Now the forum is all set
to hold the people behind the project accountable and are mulling legal
action.

MN Sreehari, an expert in traffic and transportation, said, “It is sad to
see how the state government sidelined all its agencies to go on with a
project that costs 4 to 5 times more than the PWD approved budget, just at
the whim and fancy of a husband and wife duo.”

“The worst part is that the project is being executed in the most
unscientific manner and I don’t understand how the permission for expansion
is being granted without even checking the viability of the pilot project
executed in the central business district. To top this, the project has not
taken into consideration the issues ailing urban mobility and the size of
the pavement is being decided on the amount of utilities that will go under
it,” he added.

The forum presented the papers acquired by various activists under the
Right to Information Act. The detailed project report and planning of the
project has not been put in the public domain till date, claimed the people
gathered for discussion.

Two complaints were also made ready; one for the Lokayukta and the fate of
the other is yet to be decided. Since its inception, the project has been
marred with controversy and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, the
local body responsible for development work in the city, itself was against
the execution of this project.

To top these, questions has also been raised on the way the contract was
granted for the project, its planning and the dubious way in which it has
been executed. Leo F Saldanha of the Environment Support Group, who was
present during the discussion said, “The 1976 K a r n a t a k a M u n i c i
p a l Corporation act clearly puts forward the definition of a public road
and the rights citizens have over it. But during the execution of the
project, the act has been blatantly violated and if the city is really
looking forward to sustainable development, we just need to get back and
demand back our constitutional rights. The rest will follow. Also the way
the permission for the project has been granted and planning has been
carried out violates the seventy-fourth amendment of the constitution act
1992, where the planning of the whole project has been done by bypassing
the constitutionally formed metropolitan committee. There is a strong legal
ground on which this project could be opposed as now it also seems to be
harming the environment of the city.”
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