JOIN USBBMP polls: A year without elected body, welfare measures neglected, people’s voices crushed
Even as it handled the Covid-19 pandemic that paralysed normal life, the city has completed one year without an elected local council.
Despite its assurance that it would hold elections to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) at the earliest by fast-tracking ward delimitation, the state government has remained indifferent to the issue.
The need for the elected local council has been felt strongly as the city limps back to normalcy and people find it harder to get solutions for civic problems. Although major political parties are silent, the calls for the BBMP polls are reaching a crescendo after a successful election to municipal bodies in North Karnataka.
Pressure on the state government and Election Commission to hold the local polls is growing from resident welfare associations (RWAs), citizens-found political parties and civic organisations.
Elected in 2015, the BBMP council completed its term on September 10, 2020. Soon after, the state government posted Gaurav Gupta the administrator. He later became the first chief commissioner under the newly enacted BBMP Act, 2020.
Though the bureaucracy addressed several issues, including the alarming surge in cases during the second Covid wave, it failed to connect with people the way elected corporators did. Local representatives could also have held things together at the ward level.
“People reach out to corporators for various civic issues right from uncollected garbage to dysfunctional streetlights,” former mayor G Padmavathi said. “Corporators respond to all their problems. They are the first point of contact for citizens and this contact has been systematically and deliberately destroyed by the government.”
Another Congress leader said officials were at the state government’s mercy. “The city is currently grappling with a range of issues from potholes to confusion over property tax, which remain unsolved despite repeated requests to authorities.”
Urban governance experts point to a constitutional crisis. One of them pointed to Article 243 (U) of the Constitution that puts the onus on the government to appoint the council within six months of dissolving the earlier one. “The same was also incorporated under the Karnataka Municipal Council Act, 1976,” the expert said. “Even if the government wishes to defer the polls, it can only do for six months by posting an administrator. Now, there is no reason to justify why the polls haven’t been held.”
Not-for-profit trust Janaagraha’s head of civic participation Srinivas Alavilli said people have lost political representation. City residents, especially the poor, have lost their voice and are stripped of their rights, Alavilli added.
BBMP officials argued that the civic body appointed nodal officers to every zone to ensure smooth functioning, to which Alavilli said: “The nodal officers worked well in a few wards, but it’s a temporary arrangement and can’t go on for too long.”
Many have also accused the government of dragging its feet over holding elections to retain control over the city administration.
“We have seen many cases where the MLA had picked the opportunity to overpower the local governance structure. The BBMP’s Rs 10,000-crore budget is under the control of the government and spending money without council’s consent is illegal in a democratic set-up,” said Lalithamba B V, of the Bengaluru Navanirmana Party.
When Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) was transformed into the BBMP, the government refused to hold polls for two years until it was chastised by the Supreme Court.
While the bureaucracy may be focusing on containing the pandemic, it ignored welfare measures to uplift the poor.
Former leader of the ruling party and opposition leader, Abdul Wajid, said many welfare measures had lost meaning in the absence of corporators. “Be it distribution of sewing machines, cycles, laptops or even medical grants, no scheme has been implemented.”
Though the high court ordered polls to the BBMP council, the Supreme Court stayed the order citing the newly enacted BBMP Act, allowing an increase of wards to 243. Former corporators and civic organisations are hopeful of a speedy resolution to the constitutional deadlock. “We are expecting the Supreme Court to list the case soon and elections can be held in the next three to four months,” Wajid said.
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