India October 14th 2016: Participants: Prakash Belawadi, Naresh Narasimhan, Sridhar Pabbisetty, Priya ChettyRajagopal, Srinivas Alavilli, Ramdas Rao
CASFo is not an organisation, there is no office, no office bearers. CASFo has lot of love for namma ooru. We are not affiliated to any political party or organisation; we have a single point agenda : steel flyover beda.
1. In the last 10 days, our citizen movement against the steel flyover made the government finally budge. We now have the BDA report and Hon'ble Minister KJ George giving information on the project like never before. We consider this as a small but significant victory of the people, for the people and by the people of Bengaluru. But we have further to go.
2. Our efforts awakened the opposition parties from deep slumber and prodded them to do their duty: representing public view in the interest of our city & state. But we have even further to go.
3. In the last few days, we have made calls to 28 MLAs and all MPs, in an effort to convey public opinion. 16 of the MLAs and 2 of the MPs responded and not a single one of them supported the flyover idea. Some of them appreciated our campaign and are going to join us on Sunday.
4. Our cue has finally elicited public statements from Mr. Suresh Kumar, Mr. Kumaraswamy, Mr. Shettar. This is heartening and a clear signal that active engagement of citizens can make democracy work.
5. On Sunday, October 16th starting 8 AM at Chalukya Hotel, we will form a human chain. We welcome one and all citizens of Bengaluru to show solidarity to this cause. Regardless of your party, constituency, ward, we want you to be there. No one can deny that Bengaluru desperately needs better traffic management and public transport, not an 1800 crore steel roller coaster in the middle of Bellary Road.
6. This issue is extremely emotive for citizens and touches a nerve. The overwhelming volunteer and citizen support is a clear signal of a righteous cause and flawed governmental approach. We are confident our continued efforts will change the government's mind.
7. We invite the the Honourable Chief Minister, Mr Siddharamiah, Honourable Minister Mr K J George, the Congress government and party leaders to align with the people's cause and join the Human Chain on Sunday. We request the CM and his team to be ordinary Bengalureans first and politicians next and they will automatically feel the pain of the citizens.
We urge the government to do right by Bengaluru - prioritise public transport, consult neutral urban experts and deliver a comprehensive solution to the traffic mess.
We thank all volunteers for support to this citizen's cause. Your love for the city is what makes it grand and all of us together are keepers of it. Thanks are due to MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar and the Namma Bengaluru Foundation that has stood solid by this forum on the critical issue of government transparency and due process.
Importantly, we thank members of the media for covering this issue and making it a very healthy public discourse, a matter supremely important to 1.2 crore residents of Bengaluru.