Mayor rejects official bungalow offer

Newly elected mayor Gangambike has rejected the offer of living in the official bungalow.

During the tenure of former mayor R Sampath Raj, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had for the first time allocated Rs 5 crore to construct bungalows for both, mayor and commissioner of the city.

The state government has also approved the proposal.

However, Gangambike feels that this luxury is unnecessary as she is a resident of Bangalore.

“The tenure of mayor is just for a year. I do not want this luxury as I feel that the same money can be used for other development work. However, I have to discuss this with the officials yet,” Gangambike told DH.

The civic body was quite keen on implementing this as it had also identified plots in Gandhinagar and Shantinagar to construct bungalows for mayor and commissioner respectively.

Meanwhile, BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said if the plan needs to be tweaked, then they have to appeal to the government.

“As the budget has already been approved, we will have to check how to go about this.”

When questioned if he will also give up the luxury, he said: “Having a separate bungalow for the senior officials makes it easy to listen to the grievances of people and serve them better. Now, what we live in our personal homes. If there is an official place, people can have access to us 24/7.”