BANGALORE: Well-known theatre and film personality C.R. Simha on Friday urged the stakeholders implementing the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in Bangalore to be transparent and accountable.

For this, the stakeholders should publish a monthly or at least a quarterly report on the projects undertaken giving details of expenditure incurred under different heads, he said. The report should also be posted on the web, he said.

South zone dialogue

Mr. Simha was speaking at the South Zone dialogue organised by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation Commuter Advisory Facilitation Centre to elicit public opinion on improving the urban transport under JNNURM here on Friday.

He regretted that governments had not been accountable to the public since Independence. Quoting Rajiv Gandhi that 85 per cent of the money spent by the Government did not reach the targeted sections, Mr. Simha said the situation should be reversed through active public participation.

He commended the BMTC's initiative to hear the public before formulating any policy.

Urban transit system

Mr. Simha noted that president (Development) of New York Transit Authority Nagaraja, who is a Kannadiga, was prepared to lend his expertise in modernising the urban transit system in Bangalore. The Government should utilise his expertise, he said. Representatives of residents' welfare associations from the South Zone presented their suggestions to the committee. These included feeder bus services from peripheral areas to the main connecting points, dedicated bus lanes, synchronisation between various modes of public transport, including metro rail, creation of a Greater Bangalore Transport Regulating Authority to oversee the entire gamut of public transport in Bangalore, low-floor buses, construction of bus stations in important areas, providing proper bus shelters etc.

BMP Additional Commissioner (Finance) P.K. Srihari, BMTC Chief Mechanical Engineer Anand, Chief Manager (MIS) Prakash, Janaagraha's Swati Ramanathan, S. Arvind from TCS and Ramaraju, president of Abhyudaya, a federation of residents' welfare associations in Padmanabhanagar, were present.

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