BBMP to advertise council meet webcast

Aiming to get more viewership for the council meetings, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is planning to advertise the live streaming.

The BBMP became the first city body in the country to live-stream the council sessions through its official website linked to YouTube but has been struggling to increase viewership.

Viewership for the meeting held on December 27, 2018, was a meagre 260. “Webcast of the council meeting hasn’t reached many people,” the BBMP’s council secretary Pallavi K R told DH.

“We’ve therefore proposed to give publicity to the event. The civic body’s IT department would take a decision on this.”

All 198 corporators attend the BBMP council meeting at the civic body’s headquarters, where they voice the concerns of their respective wards.

The civic body also makes policy decisions at the meeting, chaired by the mayor, the deputy mayor and the BBMP commissioner.

Four cameras installed

The civic body has installed four cameras at different angles in the council hall at a cost of Rs 80 lakh to live-stream the proceedings.

The initiative is based on a survey of Indian cities by the nonprofit Janaagraha.

Around the world, the city of London in the United Kingdom and Ontario in Canada do similar live streaming of their municipal meetings on a mobile app.