Former IAS Officer and PhD in Public Finance is AAP MLA Candidate from Shanti Nagar

Constituency:
Shanti Nagar constituency in Bangalore is the heart of the city. Even though in terms of problems being faced in Shanti Nagar, this constituency is no different from others. Garbage, potholes, drains, sewage and transport are major issues in Shanti Nagar. Nalapad Ahmed Haris, local MLA from INC has failed miserably to address these issues as claimed by AAP candidate for upcoming Karnataka assembly elections.

Profile:
Renuka Viswanathan, PhD in Public Finance from Paris University is former IAS officer and currently Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Shanti Nagar constituency. Along with many other administrative responsibilities at state and central level of government, Renuka was the first woman Deputy Commissioner of any district of Karnataka. She was also appointed as first woman Managing Director of the Karnataka State Finance Corporation. While working as Secretary for Rural Development, GOI, she launched MNREGA which transformed the lives of crores of poor people in the country. More details about her career and achievements are available here.

In 37 years of her career, Renula has also written several articles on the issues related to governance, domestic violence, VAT, development, empowerment, finance management, economic policy etc. These articles are published in Economic and Political Weekly and can be accessed on their web.

When asked if given an opportunity today, what things she would have done differently, Renuka answered that she would have definitely stepped against poor policies of government and promote technocracy. She would also have raised her voice against Aadhar which she did not because of the working nature and pressure from bureaucracy. Our system lacks technocracy. We believe on reliable administrators not on experts. There are many expert and honest IAS officers who are tortured for giving their best. We really need to focus on technocracy and bring experts on board irrespective of political differences.

Social Activist:

Since she cannot go back in the past to fix it, she is a now social activist and trying her best to fix certain things remained unsolved or looted by power and money. Renuka is working tirelessly for the poor and underprivileged living in slums and other areas of Bangalore. While fighting as an activist she-

• helped hundreds of families by getting children admitted into schools under the Right to Education (RTE)
• tirelessly fought for women self-help groups of Pourakarmikas to take ownership of solid waste management contracts from politically powerful middlemen 
• worked to improve the process of getting eKhatas from BBMP and making it more transparent 

Education and Health Issues:

Renuka traveled to different parts of the country and witnessed diversity in the country but issues like poor education and health are common across country irrespective of state or region. If we ignore the expensive hospitals in big cities like Bangalore which are already out of reach of poor people, we lack basic health-care and its cost is going high everyday. Government schools lack basic infrastructure and quality educators. Corruption has become part of common man’s life and it is impossible to imagine life without corruption. Even though it looks difficult to remove the feeling of corruption settled in the common man’s mind, it is not impossible. This is the reason that Renuka joined Aam Aadmi Party which has given the hope to bring back pro-people governance. With all the hurdles, Delhi govt has managed to show model governance to the country.

Election Campaign;

At the age of 69 years, she is energetic like any other AAP volunteer and campaigning in her constituency Shanti Nagar. While doing door-to-door campaign, people come in support of AAP, oppose them and give a hard time. People also coming forward and supporting her campaign by donating. When faced by some people that AAP of helping INC indirectly by dividing the BJP votes. She replied that it hard to change the political game of establish parties, they will continue doing their blame game business against AAP but both BJP and Congress will never go against each other. Either being in power or in opposition, both the parties have failed to improve healthcare, education and corruption.

Renuka Viswanathan Campaigning in her constituency, receiving donations during door-to-door campaigns, and protesting against goondaraj 

As an AAP donor Renuka believes in change and it is possible by promoting qualified candidates contesting elections. Most importantly, political candidates are supported by public money, not by corporations. AAP has shown the way of pro-people governance. Corruption free educated country with best healthcare is everyone’s dream, this is what we are working on.

You can connect with Renuka Viswanathan on twitter @VEERenuka and donating online using http://bit.ly/Donate4_AAP_Shantinagar 

AAP USA chapter organizes a weekly conference call on every Sunday at noon 12:00PM EST. More details about the call and the guest can be found at @aapchat (https://twitter.com/aapchat).