BETTER KOCHI RESPONSE GROUP (BKRG)

On Saturday the twenty ninth of January happened the official inauguration of Better Kochi Response Group (BKRG). BKRG is a group consisting of discerning Kochi-ites from various vocations. Having been very successful in their professions, the variety of expertise of the group is phenomenal. There are doctors, architects, journalists, chartered accountants, advocates, town planners, former civil servants, teachers, entrepreneurs, bankers, consultants and similar professionals in BKRG. Currently it is small group of about twenty five people. The group has been meeting for more than two years now. The objective of the group is to help Kochi become a world class city by improving its infrastructure and other facilities by bringing in cohesion between various governmental agencies who are working at it and make available its expertise to find better solutions for every day problems being faced by Kochi-ites. The ultimate goal of BKRG is to have a better Kochi for all of us, the inmates and for the travellers.

Architect Gopakumar, a well known Kochi socialite is the brain behind the group. Having seen Kochi from very close quarters for more than four decades, he understands the maladies of the city not only as a citizen but also as a visionary architect. Having worked under a colossal personality such as Sir Charles Correah, it is no surprise that this man is always brimming with wonderful innovative ideas to resolve the city’s infrastructure frustrations. Among many other personalities, yours truly also is a member of the group (the Charter Secretary at that).

The group had taken up many projects at the right earnest. The Vyttila Mobile habitat project is one of the major projects that it had associated from the genesis. South Over bridge widening, Public toilets, Bus shelters, Road signage, Water transport, Biogas plants for solid waste management etc. are some other initiatives that the group is actively pursuing. Being part of it, one really gets enamoured by the sheer bureaucracy that prevails in the working (or not working!) of the government departments in coordinating the activities. Having seen it all, one remembers the ‘doha’ of Sant Kabeer; “Dheere Dheere re mana, Dheere sab kuch hoi” (Oh mind, go slow please, for everything happens very slowly only). It is sure, in Kochi nothing can get created all of a sudden, it can only be evolved that too very slowly, slower than anywhere else in the country!

Coming back to the inauguration function, the inauguration was done by Prof. K V Thomas who is not only our Member of Parliament, but also a Union Minister. One must say he is a genuine person concerned about the progress of the city. Others who graced the occasion are the worshipful Mayor or the city and her Deputy. It is no mean task to be the Mayor and Deputy of the deeply corrupt Corporation of Cochin. To add to that, there is the ego of the individuals that acts as the bane for city’s progress.

Among others, the comments of two Public Sector CEOs who spoke at the occasion require merit and immediate attention. Mr. Ramachandran, the Chairman of Cochin Port Trust warned the attendees about the vehicular traffic challenges that the city and state would face when the International Transhipment terminal will come alive at Vallarpadom in the coming four years. Imagine six thousand huge container trucks moving out of the terminal every day! (It can create traffic jam till Coimbatore from Cochin, with the current highway infrastructure!)

The Chairman of Cochin Shipyard Ltd spoke about the aversion that Malayali particularly Kochi-ite has to Water. Not only that we are wasting all the rain water we receive but also we hardly put to use the inland water ways that we have in the form of rivers and backwaters for transportation, he said. If we use the water transport, the traffic of Cochin can be brought down by fifty percent, he opined. How true he is! Yes, while Malayali is averse to water, he is so fond of the other water (the inebriating one) to the extent that we are the largest per capita consumers of the same in the country!

Surprisingly, a function like this which was organised for the city’s welfare and progress, was least covered by the press and media. And herein lies the irony. When the press and media thinks that it is their (selfish) agenda to work for the welfare of the city, and as fourth estate, it is their bounden duty to be the flag bearers of city’s progress, how can they bear the idea of a small bunch of people (howsoever experienced or eminent they are) coming together to work for it?……………….

Un-digestible and really un-acceptable for them, is it not? It looks as if it is their raison d’etre for Kochi to remain as it is!