Where are the modern-day Kempe Gowdas?

In 2nd century BC, Chola king Karikalan built the Grand Anicut. The ancient dam in Tiruchy, Tamil Nadu, is considered to be one of the oldest surviving water-chanelling structures in the world. The Kaveri River flows with all its might and charm and is channeled here for irrigation and flood control. Let me drive home the point again: In 2nd century BC, Chola king Karikalan built the Grand Anicut.
On a recent visit to Mysore, I witnessed the beauty of the town from its vantage point: the Chamundi Hills. Forgive me, but I can never praise Mysore enough. Anybody who’s been there will probably agree with me. And that beauty that we praise today is partly due to the fact that Sir M Visvesvaraya was its Chief Engineer. Sir MV is considered the greatest son of India and a visionary par excellence – he dreamt of a university for Mysore, encouraged girls to study and was the architect of KRS (Krishanrajasagara Dam, to the uninitiated), which is one of the biggest dams in India. If I begin to list his other achievements, this column would run out of words before I even reach the halfway mark.
Sadly, only our past is glorious when it comes to managing cities. Cut to the present day and you see nepotism all around. Political interference and vested interests take care of the rest of whatever little our engineers and civic body chiefs can achieve. Take the case of our former BBMP commissioner S Subramanya, for instance. He was so vehement in defending his character that he had to give up his chair for it. Agreed that Abhishek’s death was not the sole responsibility of the BBMP chief but it doesn’t become a man of his stature to blame the child’s mother or take on the Lokayukta for his comments. You could call it his hamartia.
Managing cities is no mean task. But it is not that overwhelming either. A micro (nay, nano) model of how cities should be run can be seen in our glitzy malls. The toilets are cleaned regularly, there is a mandatory space for parking, walkways are clearly defined and some thought goes into how weekend crowds are handled.
Look at our cities on the other hand. Our pourkarmikas (they should be called poor karmikas henceforth) are poorly equipped for the job. They clean sewers – which are storehouses of deadly gases – without the most basic equipment. How often have you seen – or heard of -- a civic body chief taking rounds of the city and setting things right on the spot? Where in Bangalore have you seen zero-tolerance zones where no encroachment or deviation from the master plan is allowed?
Couple of days back, Jayakar Jerome, the former BDA chief, wrote an eye-opener in The New Indian Express. He described in great detail how the four natural drainage valleys of Bangalore have to be scientifically drained, desilted and trained. He also advocated the modernization of storm water drains. That is so true. In most of our cities, storm water drains are of the Raj era.
Most of our cities need rebuilding from the bottom up. They need new Master Plans, better engineering marvels, better foresight. All in all, we need visionaries and doers like Sir Visvesvarayas, Karikanals and Kempe Gowdas.
Can our cities deliver?