Bruhat Bengaluru set to become 'greater'

Property prices are expected to go up on the outskirts of Bengaluru as the city’s municipal area is all set to increase, covering outlying villages and suburbs located in a 1-km radius.

This was a key recommendation made by a joint house committee that tabled its report on the proposed BBMP Bill in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. The new Bill will be exclusive to Bengaluru, which is currently governed under the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act.

The joint house committee, headed by BJP’s CV Raman Nagar legislator S Raghu, said that the existing Bengaluru municipal limits should be expanded to cover a 1-km radius. This will subsume gram panchayats, town panchayats, town municipal councils and city municipal councils that are currently outside the BBMP limits.

This recommendation will now be inserted into the BBMP Bill, which also proposes to increase the number of municipal wards in the city from the existing 198 to 243. Some of these new wards are likely to be the outlier areas that will be brought under the city’s municipality.

Expanding the city’s municipal limits under the proposed BBMP Bill will also give the civic body more revenues by way of taxation on newer properties.

The Bill also proposes a new governance structure for the city: A 30-month mayoral term, a chief commissioner, zonal committees and so on. The zonal committees will have the power to approve and implement projects such as solid waste management, street lights and other public infrastructure matters.

The Bill is widely seen as the BJP government’s ploy to delay elections to the BBMP, whose term ended on September 10.

“I am afraid that the proposed BBMP Bill, which was drafted in supersonic speed, does not answer a fundamental question: How will the city’s governance structure be improved?” Congress’ former minister and Byatarayanapura MLA Krishna Byre Gowda, a member of the joint house committee, said.