Why doesn’t the city corporation lease out public parking lots to cash-strapped NGO trusts? Skeptics may ask: What’s the guarantee that NGOs won’t do hanky-panky or fleece parking lot users? There can be no answer to those who have a question for every answer. All that can be said is there is lesser scope for public exploitation by an NGO than a profit-driven contractor.

With the initiative of NGOs working in specified fields and with public-private collaboration, city improvement trusts can be set up for greening Mysore, planting trees on roadside, domestic wastes collection and management, upkeep of neglected lakes (the one on Nanjangud road raises real stink), and uncared for heritage sites.

That the civic body earns Rs.30,000 a year from parking lot contractors must come as a revelation, while we all know there is ten times more money in it. Chosen NGOs could run pay-and-park lots, employing the physically handicapped, to raise fund for city-improvement programmes.