Bengaluru: Think tanks come together to discuss urban governance

Civic society activists, policy experts and officials converged at the Bangalore International Centre on Saturday to discuss urban governance in the state and rethink the way cities are built.

Organised by the Citizens’ Agenda for Bengaluru and CIVIC Bangalore, in association with Habitat Forum (INHAF), Praja Foundation, and Making Model Gurugram, the day-long event under the banner of “Swaraj for Cities” series focused on the 74th Amendment of the Constitution which enables decentralisation of power to municipal bodies.

The keynote address by Dr A Ravindra, former state government chief secretary and chairperson, Centre of Sustainable Development, emphasised the need to make planning regional and sustainable because focusing just on cities has led to unplanned growth outside city limits.

Urban designer Brinda Sastry said that Karnataka has lagged behind in implementing the fourth state finance commission’s recommendations and hasn’t yet set up the sixth finance commission. 

Mathew Idiculla, visiting faculty, Azim Premji University, noted that there are inherent flaws in the 74th amendment and lamented the lack of a separate list for urban local self-governance under the Constitution.

Prof Dr V Anil Kumar, Head, Centre for Political Institutions, Governance and Development, ISEC felt that there needs to be a focus on Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities where governance is in bad shape and the role of counsellors is limited. 

Nigel Albuquerque, founder, Mangaluru Civic Group, noted that the coastal city has seen considerable success in the setting up of and functioning of ward committees. The civic group is working to ensure that funds are allocated to ward committees instead of the corporators for ward development.

Civic activists from Mysuru, Kalaburagi, and Davangere are trying to influence their local governance bodies to follow the Mangaluru model.

B S Patil, chairman, BBMP restructuring committee, said that a city can govern itself only if all citizens understand their responsibilities. He said that one of their recommendations was to form a Bengaluru council as an umbrella body under which all independently-working civic agencies could work together.