BDA set to become more transparent

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has taken up a slew of measures to make its functioning more transparent where all the information will be made available online.

A survey report by Janaagraha, an NGO, had mentioned about the discrepancies in the functioning of three civic bodies including BDA. The major charges were lack of transparency and huge mismatch in its estimated budget and actual expenditure. In a detailed press release, the BDA said it has entrusted the work of developing a comprehensive e-platform to Municipal Reform Cell as part of the e-governance process.

“Once this work is completed, which is likely in a month's time, all the disclosures highlighted by Janaagraha will be highlighted. Additionally, online payment of bills will also form part of this comprehensive package under development and contractors and suppliers will be able to view the status of their bills by logging on to BDA’s website,” the BDA said.

Regarding the mismatch in its estimated and actual budget, the BDA said the budgetary allocations, both for revenue and expenditure, were higher because the development of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout and Dr Shivarama Karanth Layout and construction of Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) were in the pipeline.

“While NKG Layout did not accelerate as planned due to problems and litigation related to land acquisition, the development of Dr Shivarama Karanth Layout was shelved because of a court verdict. The PRR did not take off as planned in view of the difficulty to find a lending agency, internal and external, to finance the huge cost of land acquisition,” the BDA said in a press release.

It asked the critics to look into these variations from the perspective of the “compelling unavoidable reasons hampering the achievement of the goals.” The development authority has set aside the suggestion for auditing by the empanelled chartered ac­c­o­un­tants saying that the CAG does the work for it.

Grievance meet on July 2

Bangalore Development Authority will organise a public grievance meeting on July 2 at 11am at BDA Divisional Office, BDA Commercial Complex, HSR Layout Sector 4. Rajkumar Khatri, BDA Commissioner will hear the grievances of people.

Citizens can send their grievances to [e-mail], [e-mail] or [e-mail]. For details, call 96630 67674 / 98456 30128. Citizens can also file their grievances during the meeting.