Party formed by RWAs to release manifesto for civic workers

The Bengaluru Nava Nirmana Party, an outfit spearheaded by various residents’ welfare associations in the city, is gearing up for the BBMP polls with an exclusive manifesto for pourakarmikas.

The party has an ambitious plan to release 20 issue-based manifestos in the coming days that will deal with various civic issues plaguing the city.

The draft manifesto on pourakarmikas — to be released in the public domain soon — promises to regularise the employment of all 18,000 sanitation workers and online tracking of their salaries.

The party also promises to weed out bogus names from the list of pourakarmikas, besides promising them pure drinking water, nutritious meals, timely weekly offs, besides also promising to regularise 12,000 auto drivers and loaders.

Party co-founder Srikanth Narasimhan told DH that his outfit would eventually release separate manifestos for each significant issue.

“Our manifestos will cover multiple topics like solid waste management, education, street vendors, slum dwellers, animal welfare, heritage, trees, lakes, property tax, BBMP services, occupancy certificates and healthcare, among other issues. The manifestos will be based on a solid understanding of on-the-ground issues and with points that will directly address these issues at a fundamental level,” he said.

The party, formed in September 2019, is driven by representatives of RWAs and other civic groups.

The core team

Some of the party’s core team have formerly been members of Bangalore Apartment Federation, Whitefield Rising and Federation of Villa Communities. Members also include activists from Heritage Beku, Samriddhi Trust for Education, Citizens for Bengaluru, Citizens for Animal Birth Control and Pothole Raja, among others, Narasimhan said.

Members said the party was formed with the sole aim of contesting the BBMP polls, besides addressing the city’s civic issues. It currently has 400 ward-level representatives with the understanding of the ground-level issues.

The party is preparing to contest in all the 198 wards in the civic polls.