Harried BWSSB officials get pep talk in Bangalore

Engineers of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) are a worried lot these days. With the city in the grip of a water crisis, an annual summer ritual, BWSSB officials are facing the heat from irate Bangaloreans.

After an angry group ransacked the BWSSB office on Bannerghatta Road, a water inspector in Vidyaranyapura was attacked recently. The situation deteriorated to such an extent that engineers began requesting the board not to post them in areas suffering from water shortage.

With the morale of the workforce in tatters, the BWSSB board finally decided to do something: they decided to rope in a counsellor.

On Monday, Dr Gururaj Karajagi, chairman, Academy of Creative Teaching, addressed nearly 200 assistant executive engineers and assistant engineers. His tip: keep a cool head and maintain good relations with customers.

The counsellor even threw in the example of quake-hit Japan. “After the devastating tsunami in Japan, engineers laid 250km of cable in five days; they fought leakage from reactors. Now the nation is recovering, thanks to the people who continue to soldier on despite the odds,” he said. An engineer said the talk was “very good” and “much-needed”.

The one-hour stress management talk focussed on how engineers, who are victims of public ire, should remain calm even in the most difficult of situations.