JOIN USThe Citizens' Action Forum (CAF), a conglomeration of about 150 residents' welfare associations across the City, has urged the chief minister to hold the elections to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on time and not to link it with the proposed restructuring of the civic agency.
CAF president Rajashekhar and Secretary Mahalakshmi Parthasarathy have said that they had an apprehension that the State government may delay the BBMP elections, which will put the citizens at great loss. They said the government had formed a panel to recommend the division of the BBMP. The government order based on which the committee was constituted was supposed to study the restructuring of BBMP and give its recommendation to address the pressing issue of the City’s future governance. However, the government order is not clear about the timeline for acting upon the advice, which may take weeks, months or even years, they said.
“In this scenario it becomes very important to delink the elections from the trifurcation process and continue with the elections on schedule and have an elected BBMP Council in place. Any delay in holding the BBMP elections will adversely impact in formulating a functional Metropolitan Planning Committee and ward Committees will become defunct without a chairperson who is the corporator,” an open letter addressed to the chief minister said.
They also expressed their apprehensions that bifurcation or trifurcation of the civic agency would make the bureaucrats more powerful. “We believe that it is important to give more power to our elected representatives who are accessible to citizens and can sort out their civic problems. Further, the quality of life in the City has reached an abysmal low and bifurcation/trifurcation of BBMP which has a very limited role in ensuring a smooth functioning of the city should be the last thing,” the letter read.
The CAF has suggested decentralisation of administration and mandated devolution of funds to BBMP independent of the State government.
DH News Service