The term development, having been understood as prosperity in its widest meaning for all time past, merits a revisit, given the devastation it has wrought in the country’s metropolises, taking the case of Bengaluru to drive home the point. Describing the State’s capital as Asia’s fastest growing city until not too long ago mocks at its present scenario that has emerged as a result of development with inputs by both the government and private players, many of the latter sections having come from other regions of the country to set up shop, continuing their enterprise both within the city limits and surroundings, suffocating the people who wish to be identified as the city’s old guard. The city’s lung space would have shrunk to choking stage but for sustaining Cubbon Park, Lalbagh, Race Course, Sir C.V. Raman’s residence, the remaining playgrounds and the few large residential sites staring down the barrel of yielding their space to high rise structures. The norm of 25 per cent open space is a minimum for every city has been callously thrown to winds, thanks to the avarice of elected representatives in posts of authority. More need not be said about their boundless desire to amass wealth, hurting the society’s welfare no end.
Whatever is left of the water bodies, parks and playgrounds in the two major cities of the State in our times is testimony to the vision of the then rulers of the erstwhile Princely State of Mysore and their Chief Executives in charge of administration neither of whom were elected by the citizens unlike nowadays. The harassed residents of the two cities are paying the price for their choice of the law-makers.
