BBMP monthly council meetings to be webcast live

Streaming shortly

For the first time in the country, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), will be live streaming the monthly council meeting through the civic body’s official website.

The BBMP had recently webcast the mayoral election live on the website on a trial basis. Now, the civic body has decided to live stream the monthly council meeting debates, similar to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha live broadcasts.

The council meetings at the BBMP headquarters are attended by all the 198 corporators, who voice the needs and demands of their respective wards. The civic body also takes policy decisions at these meetings. The mayor, the deputy mayor and the BBMP commissioner chair the meetings.

Speaking to DH, Pallavi K R, BBMP’s council secretary said, “For the first time in India, a city civic body will webcast the council meeting live to the public. The proposal is based on a survey of Indian cities conducted by the not-for-profit, Janaagraha.”

“With the live webcast, the people of the city will come to know what decisions are taken in the council meetings. People have a right to know what their elected representatives discuss in these meetings,” said Mayor, Gangambike Mallikarjun.

In the year 2015, the then Karnataka Legislative Assembly Speaker, Kagodu Thimmappa, had proposed to launch a separate TV channel to live telecast proceedings of the legislative Assembly and Council.

The City of London and Ontario in Canada live-stream proceedings of municipal meetings on a mobile phone app.