Improving Palike's finances, new mayor's priority

 B N Manjunath Reddy, the newly elected First Citizen of Bengaluru said that his top priority will be to improve the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's financial condition that has worsened in the last few years.

Addressing the press meet along with his deputy S P Hemalatha, Reddy said that the financial situation of civic agency had turned worse due to misgovernance of previous dispensation.

“Accounts were not managed properly. The administrative report has not been tabled for many years. In the last four-and-a-half months, some steps have been taken by Administrator, T M Vijaya Bhaskar and we will continue to follow his path.”

Reddy, a three-time corporator from Madiwala ward pointed out that the Palike properties were not looked after properly.

“There are millions and millions of rupees worth of assets, including the markets. While Palike is spending money to manage them, the income we get from them is very poor. We will take steps to recover the balance from market stalls, community halls and other assets belonging to Palike,” he said. 

Unnecessary expenses

He said that all the unnecessary works will be cancelled in a bid to reduce the unnecessary expenditure. He said that the highest priority will be given to address traffic congestion. The State government has taken action in the last eight months to tackle garbage crisis and two waste processing units will be ready soon.

“During the last administration, there was a proposal to widen 93 roads. However, till date only four roads has been widened and the work is incomplete. Due to delay in land acquisition and other factors, the project was not implemented. We will speed up the land acquisition process,” he said.

He pointed out that there are around 22,000 unauthorised hoardings in the City and measures will be taken to ensure more revenue to the Palike by clearing them and slapping fine against people who put up the illegal hoardings. He, however, added that one-year term for mayor was not enough and the tenure should be increased to two and a half years, at least.

According to sources, R S Sathyanarayana will be the leader of the ruling party and Padmanabha Reddy is said to be the leader of the Opposition.