JOIN USThree-member panel formed on splitting Palike
The State government on Monday constituted a three-member expert committee headed by former chief secretary B S Patil to prepare a report on splitting the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
The panel has been asked to submit its report within three months. According to a notification issued by the Urban Development Department, the government has deemed it apt to split the BBMP to ensure better administration of the civic body and also to provide better infrastructure facilities in the City.
Thus, the government has set up an expert committee which will submit its report within the stipulated time. After receiving public opinion on the report to be submitted by the panel, the government would take an appropriate decision.
Former BBMP commissioner Siddaiah and member of the erstwhile Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) V Ravichander are the members of the expert committee. The additional commissioner (administration), BBMP, has been directed to provide an office, staff, vehicles and other logistics required for the committee to carryout the assigned task.
The genesis
On August 12, 2013, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, who is in charge of Bangalore, had convened a meeting to discuss the proposal to bifurcate the BBMP. Subsequent to the meeting, the minister had requested the State government to setup an expert committee to study the proposal to split the Palike.
Ramalinga Reddy, in the letter to the government, had cited the examples of major metros such as Mumbai, Kolkata and London that have more than one municipal bodies to cater to the growing needs of the respective cities. “Though London’s population density is same as that of Bangalore, it has 32 urban local areas,” he had said.
“The administration in BBMP is plagued by various problems. The solid waste management system has worsened and several public interest litigations have been filed in the High Court.
There is a dim possibility of solving the garbage crisis. There is a need to provide drinking water facility, road connectivity and create civic infrastructure in 110 villages added to the BBMP jurisdiction,” the government has stated in the preamble to the order.