Bangalore is getting more and more sophisticated by the day. Our infrastructure is in pretty bad shape but the authorities never seem to tire of finding new ways to fill their coffers. For a city whose roads are in pretty poor shape and the lines of demarcation blurred does it really make sense to introduce this bold new law against jaywalking? What does our bureaucracy intend doing about the jay-walking cows on our other important roads and highways in the city? 

People are accustomed to living with chaos and trying to change them may be a difficult task indeed. The jaywalking law has come into effect on Brigade and M.G. Road where hapless pedestrians are hauled up for walking on the road and fined Rs. 50. They then have to go to the Magistrates Court to pay it. A VirtualBangalore team member had to bribe a cop Rs. 20 to avoid going to court. And, the cop shamelessly accepted it.

You can imagine the surprise that people must have got when they first got fined. This is not Singapore, although many politicians would like to have us believe that we are heading that way. At this rate our bureaucracy might end up converting Bangalore to Indonesia instead of Singapore (anyways they are pretty close by ;))

Why don’t the authorities improve all the roads in Bangalore, put up signs and zebra crossings and then make the jaywalking laws applicable to the whole city. By just targeting these two roads they are taking the easy way out and losing even more respect for their shortsightedness and presumptuous nature.

The crime rate is going higher up and these soft measures will do nothing to curb it. All it’ll do is make it seem as if there is more order, mere illusion to say the least. But then we seem to be more concerned with how things look rather than how they actually are. Get real folks and don’t forget to take a walk on the wild side, if you can get away with it of course. 

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