BANGALORE: The pace of Bangalore's rapid change brought several individuals and organisations together on Saturday for a `Save Bangalore Convention.'

The meet, organised by the Platform of Citizens' Associations, saw topics such as civic problems, traffic management, culture, crime, environment, "commodification" of health and education and a development model being discussed by a panel of experts. The meet was titled `Save Bangalore Convention' in view of the situation of the city today.

Speakers included the former Lokayukta N. Venkatachala, freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy and B.R. Manjunath, convener, Platform of Citizens' Associations.

Mr. Manjunath began his speech with a quote on New York City about "millions of people living alone together". Everyone was responsible for the city that Bangalore had become today. Mr. Venkatachala blamed political corruption for the degradation of the city. He said, "Politicians will do everything to stay in power and make money. If we can change the mindset of politicians, we can change the situation in the State."

Environmentalist A.N. Yellappa Reddy, who spoke on lakes, parks and environmental pollution, said, "Gardens and parks are the windows of our city. Lakes and ponds are its lungs. How can we have so much ignorance as to kill these very windows?" The message to save our environment comes from ancient scriptures themselves. H.G. Somashekhar Rao, theatre personality, who was to speak on culture, concluded that the city had no culture and so he could not really speak about its cultural atmosphere.

Citing the changes he had been witnessing since childhood, Mr. Rao said, "Those days, we saw words like austerity, simplicity and serenity in the papers of the day. Now, we see insanity, stupidity and criminality."

An interactive session followed the speeches by the panellists.

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