After public outcry, govt includes Bengaluru mayor in vision group

After a public outcry, the state government today announced the inclusion of the City Mayor in a vision group formed to find solutions to resolve Bengaluru's infrastructure and civic bottlenecks.

"We have included City Mayor and also Vivek Menon, an urban development expert, in the vision group, which will give suggestions to resolve the city's infrastructure and civic bottlenecks," Bengaluru Development Minister K J George told PTI.

The non-inclusion of City Mayor in the action group was being seen by some social activists and BJP as an attempt by Congress government to face any eventuality of their BBMP member not winning the post-August mayoral election.

Some section of social activists and BJP have vehemently opposed the non-inclusion of Mayor in the Vision Group, alleging that the move undermines the authority of the democratically constituted Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.

The Bengaluru Vision Group, also known as Bengaluru Blue Print Action Group, includes eminent Bengalureans like N R Narayana Murthy of Infosys, Azim Premji of Wipro, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon, Sachin Bansal of Flipkart, Ramesh Ramanathan and Swati Ramanathan of Janaagraha, as members.

While Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is the chairman of the vision group, George will be the chairman.

Asked if the Mayor will enjoy decision-making power as the Chief Minister and other members, George said the mayor will have an advisory role, and will not exercise any decision-making powers as chief minister and some other members.

"Here (vision group), the mayor will work in the capacity of an advisor. He will not have the powers of making decisions as does the chief minister and some other members."
George said the vision group will hold discussions before submitting the recommendations to the Metropolitan Planning Committee, which is the decision-making body.

Responding to a query, George said MLAs and corporators are not included in the group, but neverthesless, they would be reached out for suggestions to improve Bengaluru's infrastructure.

A similar vision group in 2014 could not materialise following a stay order issued by High Court. The case was later disposed of.

Last year, the state government paved the way for reviving the vision group after it sought an opinion from the Additional Advocate General, who gave a green signal by saying there were no subsisting High Court orders.