Splitting hair over dividing Palike

The government's move to form a committee on the feasibility of partitioning BBMP is seen by some as a ploy to delay polls even as residents' welfare

Just when the term of the present elected body of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is to come to an end on April 27, the State government has embarked upon the herculean task of restructuring the civic agency.

The restructuring is happening eight years after the formation of Greater Bengaluru by adding 110 villages, four town municipal corporations and one city municipal corporation (CMC) to the Palike fold.

The government has constituted a three-member committee headed by former chief secretary B S Patil and comprising former BBMP commissioner Siddaiah and urban expert V Ravichandar to study the feasibility of splitting the municipal corporation, which presently has a population of around 80 lakh.

While initiating such a move, the government has apparently not sought the views of the most important  stakeholders – the residents of Bengaluru. This has annoyed many resident welfare associations (RWAs) who feel that they have been totally left out of the exercise. The RWAs say they were never consulted or even called for any discussion before deciding on setting up such a committee.

Citizens' Action Forum (CAF), the biggest consortium of nearly 150 RWAs, has openly criticised the move to restructure the Palike. CAF secretary Mahalakshmi Parthasarathi said, “The tenure of the BBMP restructuring committee was for three months from the date of the government order issued on September 22, 2014, but till now, the biggest stakeholders, the citizens, have not been consulted. This gives rise to doubt that the committee has chosen not to consult us.”

Fearing that their voice will not be heard, CAF held a press conference a month ago to make its opinion public on the subject. As the corporators had expressed their fear that the government moved ahead to redesign the BBMP only to postpone the elections, the CAF said a local elected body was a must, which otherwise would be a violation of people’s rights.

CAF president Rajshekar said, “The government order is not clear about the timeline for acting upon the committee report. The report to create suitable governance systems and infrastructure for Bengaluru, including increased services expected by citizens, may take months or even years to implement. In this scenario, it becomes very important to delink the elections from the restructuring process and continue with the elections as per schedule and have an elected BBMP council in place. Any delay in the BBMP elections will adversely impact the formulation of a functional Metropolitan Planning Committee, and the existing ward committees will become defunct without a “chairperson” who is the corporator.”

Mahalakshmi said she was apprehensive that mere bifurcation or trifurcation of the civic agency will decrease the power of the municipal elected representatives and instead make the bureaucrats more powerful. “We believe it is important to give more power to our elected representatives who are accessible to citizens and can sort out their civic problems.

Further, the quality of life in the City has reached an abysmal low and bifurcation/trifurcation of BBMP, which has a very limited role in ensuring a smooth functioning of the city, should be the last thing. Measures like decentralising administration and mandated devolution of funds to the BBMP should be independent of the State government. In addition to the above, if the area sabha, the ward committees and the Metropolitan Planning Council are formed and operationalised as per the provisions of the 74th amendment, the City would be governed better.”

Dr Meenakshi Bharath of Malleswaram Residents’ Welfare Association, said the committee had not yet consulted her RWA so far. She felt that the biggest challenge today was the lack of co-ordination between the civic agencies. The jurisdiction of all the public-oriented agencies right from the BWSSB, BBMP, BDA, the police and Bescom should be co-terminus.

“Most of us do not know which area we belong to. There is discrepancy regarding the Assembly constituency and the ward we belong to. The ward we belong to may not be in the Assembly constituency we are in. In the present set-up, the BWSSB or the BDA’s jurisdiction office may be where the BBMP office is. To make things messy, the jurisdiction of police stations are also not according to the BBMP wards, divisions or zones. These discrepancies must be addressed first,” she suggested.

However, the members of the restructuring committee rejected the charges. Former BBMP commissioner Siddaiah said March had been reserved for consultation with the RWAs. “We have heard the MLAs, corporators, some political parties, Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industries, Bengaluru Political Action Committee, faculty at Aziz Premji University and scholars at the Indian Institute of Science. March is reserved for the RWAs. We have not overlooked them. We will certainly invite them to get their feedback.”

But CAF is not satisfied. Mahalakshmi Parthasarathi said the deadline of three months for the submission of the report from the date of issue of the government order was now over. “But so far, we haven’t received any invitation from the BBMP Restructuring Committee. We feel this is just a farce. We want elections to take place on time.