When she landed in Bangalore in 1980, she had no intention of joining politics. Dedicating her life to social service, she helped many to shape their lives till she became a corporator in 1990. As a corporator, she came out with schools with mother tongue as the basic medium, equipped the job-less with jobs in private companies, enabled budding entrepreneurs to get loans and established tailoring/knitting centres for women to help them stand on their own. All this self less service steered her to becoming the 38th Mayor of Bangalore in 2000, right at a time when Bangalore started making its mark on the world map.

Bangalorebest.com met this airhostess turned social worker turned corporator turned Mayor-Prema Cariappa, to ask about her plans for the city.

What were your priorities when you took up the office of the Mayor?
There were many things that needed consideration. But still, I feel the need of infrastructure like roads to be of prime concern. Swachcha (clean) Bangalore and environmental considerations followed next. I want to see that roads are well structured during my tenure with all potholes eliminated. We are going to implement the second phase of Swachcha Bangalore during the second week of January 2001. A lot of environment friendly plans are on the anvil so that Bangalore is relieved of pollutants.

How are you going to act on projects that were initiated by your predecessors?
Here again, I want to see that roads, especially flyovers are made ready for the public use. The Richmond Circle flyover was due for completion in last November (in 2000), but it is still not complete. I will see that the work on this gets over at the earliest. Even the laying of OFCs (Optic Fibre Cables) has to be seen to before taking up any other mega projects. I want to monitor all the work initiated earlier and see that they are completed soon.

What kind of projects are you going to initiate?
Apart from handling routine work, we at BMP want to take up small flyover projects at places that are prone to heavy traffic. As in Hyderabad and Chennai, we want to come out with small flyovers here in Bangalore to ease the traffic. These projects are all going to be time-bound projects with bank guarantee, wherein the project executor will be penalized for delays. I'm thinking of rewarding project executors who complete their projects in advance.

Any specific plans to help women during your tenure?
Yes. Particularly those women who are staying in areas where basic amenities are lacking. These women face a lot of problems as far as clean water, lights and many other basic requirements are concerned. I want to see that all these problems are solved through effective implementation of schemes initiated earlier.

What are your strategies for improving establishments run by BMP?
I want to improve the existing BMP schools, BMP hospitals and revenue offices by calling on the concerned authorities like teachers, principals and other officials. For that matter, I want to give surprise visits to those places.

Any expectations from the state government to complement your work, monetarily or other wise?
Resource wise, we are self sufficient as the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) helps us. Even yearly grants by the government are enabling us to take up works. It is left to the government to provide additional resources. We are coming out with a revised scheme of Self Assessment Tax, which we expect to boost us up financially. BDA hands over newly developed wards to BMP. The number of wards is increasing and so is the responsibility of BMP associated with them. BDA is co-operating and coordinating with BMP; this enables us to concentrate on the existing wards.

You said that the participation/cooperation of people in BMP activities would enable BMP to improve Bangalore in many aspects. What are the key expectations from the public?

What is your opinion on the one-year term given to Mayor?
The responsibility associated with the Mayor is continuous. We have to optimize our time in executing the projects initiated by the predecessors and in initializing future projects. I feel it could have been more effective if Mayors are given a five-year term, as in Chennai, where the public elect Mayors for a five-year term.

Prema Cariappa wants to optimize every moment of her tenure to become a successful Mayor. She feels that she can benefit from the public if they give valuable suggestions in improving the city.