Midweek Musings 22; 6.05.26 Documenting impact of corruption on society… “What is wrong in letting sewage into the storm water drain?” Illegal A-C connections damage electrical installations in the entire neighbourhood.
Documenting impact of corruption on society… “What is wrong in letting sewage into the storm water drain?” Illegal A-C connections damage electrical installations in the entire neighbourhood.
By Malini Shankar
Today I will share with you how others bribing
officials have impacted me, others in society. My neighbours are owners of a
huge piece of ancestral property measuring some 25000 square feet in the heart
of Bangalore with more than 100 fruit and flowering trees.
Most of their grandchildren or next generation
live abroad and the elders could neither pay tax nor maintain the huge property
themselves. They divided their property amongst siblings, sold off portions
that belonged to deceased siblings, leased some more land for long term, but
they were still left with 25000 sq ft. There were three sprawling bungalows in
the ancestral property. Some of the bungalows were rented out but they could
not raise enough income to maintain their huge property.
Hundreds of trees included:
1.
Cassia
grandis,
2.
Cassia
fistula,
3.
Pongamia
pinnata,
4.
Champak,
5.
Emblica
offinianalis (Amla),
6.
Tamarind,
7.
Ficus
trees,
8.
Moringa,
9.
Custard
Apple,
10.
Starfruit,
11.
Dates,
12.
Chikoo,
13.
Mango,
14.
Papaya,
15.
Pineapple,
16.
Terminalia
catapa,
17.
Silver
Oak,
18.
Cashew
trees,
19.
guava,
20. Syzygium
jambos,
21. Syzygium
cuminii,
22. Pandanus,
23. Lychee,
24.
Coconut,
25.
Teak
And so on… literally hundreds of
trees, and thousands of birds called this place their home. Parakeets Bulbuls and
Crow pheasants partied
all day! Their ancient house-hold in the heart of Bangalore, was literally
awe-inspiring! Tiled sloping roofs offered habitat t the now disappeared sparrows.
The bird count in this one
property with hundreds of trees and thousands of birds included:
1.
3
– 4 varieties of Parakeets,
2.
Red
whiskered Indian Bulbuls,
3.
Red
vented Bulbuls,
4.
Yellow
eyed Bulbuls,
5.
Song
Birds,
6.
Sun
birds
7.
Purple-rumped
sun-bird,
8.
Common
Mynas,
9.
Robin
Magpie,
10.
Barn
Owls,
11.
Brahminy
Kite,
12.
Black
Kite
13.
Crow
Pheasant
14.
Sparrow,
15.
Partridge,
16.
Seven
Sisters,
17.
Grey
Hornbill,
18.
Flycatchers,
19.
Tailor
Bird,
20.
Wagtails,
21.
4
varieties of kingfishers,
22.
Green
Bee Eater,
23.
Baja
Weaver,
24.
Oriole,
25.
Scavenger
vulture,
26.
King
vulture,
27.
Coppersmith
Barbet
28.
Herons,
29.
Pittas,
30.
Blue
Jays, / Indian Roller
31.
Warblers,
32.
Swamped
Moorhens,
33.
Geese,
34.
Garganies
35.
Asian
Koel,
36.
Shrike,
After dividing the ancestral property some alterations to the ancient household had to be done which meant sewage and bathroom fittings had to be newly fixed, sewage lines had to be relocated / altered as also water supply connections. I recall one portion of this now disjointed family bribing one Sewerage Board official to get him to feed the sewerage line into the storm water drain. The family actually said “what is wrong in letting sewage into the storm water drain?” By the time I came to know of this, the damage had already been done. As their neighbour it was me and my family that had to literally bear the stink as the storm water drain rain down in front of my house was flooded by the sludge from their toilet!
Once the younger generation migrated abroad
they elders just could not handle it. Family politics literally meant the axe
on the trees. Trees were being chopped
and decapitated left right and centre, quite literally. They had no idea of
Tree Protection Act or that permission had to be taken to fell trees, even
inside private property. Then a time came when the dis-jointed family united in
an endeavour to “develop” their property. Lo behold the developers arrived,
marked chalk on tree measured the sprawling property and re-measured it umpteen
times. Hundreds of crores of Rupees was the price to pay - for the birds. The
trees were felled without permission and the compounding fines were such a joke
if it were not on the birds.
The “development of the property took the shape
of a concrete jungle housing some 90 odd flats of varying degrees of ‘luxury’”.
Where once there were less than 10 toilets, now there are more than 450 toilets
with each toilet being used for 5 – 8 times per person. Each toilet (flush)
costs Mother Earth some 36000 Litres of fresh water per day at a modest
estimate.
Someone or a few flat owners / new residents have
bribed Electricity Supply Company officials to fix their illegal Air
Conditioning connections, to the captive Transformer which was merged with the
existing Transformer. The compromise on the transformer has taken the lives of
hundreds of squirrels, birds and lizards. Every time a squirrel dies on the
transformer the entire street loses power. All residents on the road have to
reinstall and refurbish their in house power supply inverters. Street lights
drawing power from the transformer have blinked out. Rare case of bribing
compromising Common Property Resources, hurting the tax payer indeed. But damn!
Needs to be documented. I would like to – if possible – publish the faces of
those who have bribed the electricity supply company officials.
The faceless bureaucrat or Babu who took the
bribe for the illegal AC connection from the flat has incapacitated the very installation
that has given him livelihood security and energy security to the tax payer. Not to undermine the impact on the residents
of the entire road, / colony.
I agree some laws need to more user friendly. But
overall picture is thanks to bribery the cumulative result is on society, not
on either the corrupt official or the corrupt citizen. The revolution to
cleanse the society of corruption rests on us tax paying conscientious citizens.
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