Survey confirms BBMP apathy: Ward panel meetings are ineffective

Only 33 of the 198 wards in the city embraced the idea of ward committee meetings in the past year while 11 wards did not hold even a single meeting in the same period, according to a recent survey by NGO Janaagraha.

KR Market, Padmanabha Nagar and Yelachenahalli are among the wards which failed to hold ward committee meetings.

Fifty-four wards reported irregular ward committee meetings — less than seven over 13 months.

Of the 33 wards that regularly held the ward committee meetings (two in a month), only Gottigere and Hombegowda Nagar uploaded the minutes of the meetings to the BBMP website without fail, clocking a 100 per cent adherence to the ward committee meetings mandate.

Ward committee meetings are aimed at engaging citizens in development works at the ward level, thereby ensuring local self-governance. In Bengaluru, the functions of these committees have grown in importance after the BBMP council’s term ended in September 2020 and no fresh polls were conducted.

The BBMP appointed nodal officers in all wards to address local problems and keep the ward committee meetings going.

But the idea is yet to fully take root if the Janaagraha survey is anything to go by.

The nodal officers haven’t been fully effective in running these meetings. When Janaagraha volunteers tried to contact these officers by phone, 76 of them did not respond even once. Among those who answered the phone calls, 46 nodal officers didn’t know what happened at the ward committee meetings.

A Janaagraha volunteer who was part of the survey team said: “Many nodal officers tried to evade questions. Some of them were certain that the meetings were taking place but weren’t sure about their frequency. Many said they were transferred recently and were unaware of the previous meetings.”

A resident who attends ward committee meetings said their success should also be evaluated based on the actions taken. “Just listing the issues without taking action is equivalent to not holding a meeting at all,” the resident said.

Gottigere, located in the far southern end of the BBMP limits, religiously conducted the ward committee meetings twice a month. Its nodal officer V K Ramamani said: “We made sure to stay in touch with Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) in the ward and seek their suggestions on civic works that can be taken. When citizens see the work happening on the ground, they feel motivated to participate. An agenda-based approach will go a long way (in citizen engagement).”

While the survey findings are based on interactions with nodal officers of all wards and the minutes of meetings posted on the BBMP website, Janaagraha maintained they may not be completely accurate.

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