BBMP launches campaign to seek public opinion ahead of budget

MyCityMyBudget campaign kicks off, will run until January 7

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Monday launched the exercise of seeking suggestions from citizens ahead of its annual budget.

Launched in association with Janaagraha, a city-based civic advocacy group, the ‘MyCityMyBudget’ campaign seeks to elicit citizens’ opinions on a range of issues, mainly building and managing public toilets and pedestrian pathways. The campaign will run until January 7.

BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad launched the campaign by flagging off a specially-designed budget bus and seven electric auto-rickshaws that will travel across the city. He said Bengaluru has a road network of about 14,000 km and citizens wish to have a pedestrian pathway on every road. But this is easier said than done.

“Many roads do not have pedestrian paths. On some roads that have pedestrian paths, people cannot use them because of their pathetic condition. If you look at Bengaluru’s climate, one can easily walk from one place to another,” Prasad said.

The BBMP commissioner said that the civic body aimed to develop good pedestrian paths in order to encourage people to shun vehicles. “We will be reaching out to the people to find out the places that need pedestrian paths. We’ll include them in the 2021-22 budget on a priority budget,” he said.

On public toilets, Prasad said Bengaluru had just 585 common lavatories as against its requirement of 1,600. Some areas lack public toilets while others lack proper maintenance.

He said the BBMP would seek citizens’ views on identifying and removing ‘yellow spots’ where people urinate in public.