“The government has failed to provide electricity with just one - hour power cut to help our students. Why not the government provides free inverters and baby - generators just like free distribution of cycles to students?”

Although it is not very surprising, considering that it has become an almost indispensable attribute of most governments, our State government too seems to be having a forked tongue. Otherwise how do you explain why it always seems to say one thing while doing just the other the very next moment?

Just two weeks ago the powers that be announced through the print and electronic media that the government was aware of the distress that exam-going students were in due to the erratic power supply. It also went a step ahead and assured us that in view of the forthcoming examinations, with the exception of a one hour power cut in the evening, there would be no power cuts after dark.

But our daily experience shows that while almost all the examinations of all classes and all courses have commenced, the power cuts show no signs of going away. Was it just a casual statement made to influence the voting pattern in the BBMP polls or was it the next year’s examinations the government was talking about?

In any case it should not be too surprising if it is so since the government is optimistic that next year it will be selling surplus power instead of begging for it as it is now doing. It is not only ironical but also shameful that our children are learning about all the progress the rest of the world is making and about the latest advancements in power generation by poring over their books in good old candle light.

Can our Ministers, who loll in the air - conditioned comfort of their official quarters with their own power generators, be expected to understand the plight of our already tense and overburdened students who have to meet steep deadlines against stiff competition without the basic comfort of an electric fan or a light bulb in the hot summer months? Why do our leaders and government officials make promises which they do not bother to keep? Not everyone can afford an UPS or a portable genset. But who knows? Maybe like how our government distributed free bicycles to school children in the past few years it may go a step ahead and distribute free invertors and generators from next year.

Crocodile Tears:
Yesterday’s, i. e. Friday 26th March 2010, Star of Mysore, a local evening daily from Mysore carried the news of a crocodile having been spotted on the banks of the Kukkarahalli Lake. Related to this bit of news there was also the mention of the crocodiles in the Karanji Lake and how a few of them had recently escaped from there through one of the storm water drains.

According to a statement from the Director of the Mysore Zoo, this was purportedly due to the negligence of one of the officials. He has been very considerate enough to reassure us that now there is an underwater fence around the perimeter of the lake and therefore citizens have nothing to fear about crocodiles straying outside. But since I had seen the environs of the lake recently and being the perpetual skeptic that I am, I suspected the usual government doublespeak here too. So I decided to visit the lake and verify this fact myself.

The picture I have taken this morning clearly shows a very vulnerable spot on the eastern side of the lake without any kind of fence, mesh or protection from where the untreated raw sewage from the whole of Siddhartha Layout has been flowing into the lake for many years now. It is an issue I had written about in this column last year but as expected and accepted, nothing has changed so far. Anyone who inspects this spot will realise that any adventure seeking crocodile can simply crawl out of the lake from here and inspect any part of our city to its heart’s content.

Although I doubt the very existence of an underwater fence around the Karanji Lake, I also fail to understand how any underwater fence can stop a crocodile from straying out of any lake. The whole story about this fence seems concocted just to reassure the lay public and I wonder if the Zoo Director can take a small group of citizens immediately to the place as things stand now and show them how safe it really is. I will be very happy to join this group and be proved wrong! Incidentally, it may be interesting to note here that most crocodiles if left undisturbed and unprovoked are not as dangerous as most human beings!

While talking about the Karanji Lake I think it will not be improper if I once again draw attention to the lake Bund Road that has now been closed for some time reportedly to complete the construction of an aquarium alongside. Can someone in power, who is kind enough to consider that in a democratic set up the citizens too have a right to know what is happening, be kind enough to tell us how long this road is going to be out of bounds for us?

Our Deputy Commissioner is perhaps the right government official to make the official stand clear in this matter. There are rather loud and reliable rumours that this road is going to be permanently closed. If this is true can we know who is responsible for this unilateral decision and whether this act has all the legal sanction that it needs. I am sure that denying access permanently to what was once public domain is not as simple as placing a barricade there and closing not only the place but the issue too.

But my knowing this is not enough. You should know it too and we should all decide to do something about it.