Tejasvi Surya, Rizwan Arshad speak in one voice for overhaul of Bengaluru governance

Surya made a strong case for Bengaluru to get a directly-elected mayor, a topic he admitted is a 'political hot potato'

Bangalore South BJP MP Tejasvi Surya said on Friday that a new law introduced by his party’s government in Karnataka to govern Bengaluru was "inadequate" while Shivajinagar Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad argued for an overhaul of the BBMP’s structure, dubbing the civic body as a "burden".

Surya and Rizwan, two of Bengaluru’s youngest lawmakers, were in conversation at the DH Bengaluru 2040 summit where, in a rare display of concurrence, the two leaders were on the same page as far as the city’s future was concerned.

"The city’s parastatals - the BBMP, BWSSB, BMTC - don't talk to each other," Surya said. "Even the new BBMP Act is inadequate and I’m saying this being a member of the ruling party. We need an administrative surgery where there’s coordination between various parastatals taking care of the city."

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Arshad, a first-time MLA like Surya who is a debutant MP, said that Bengaluru needed a lot of attention and commitment.

"BBMP is a burden on Bengaluru rather than being an organisation that can provide solutions," Arshad said, to which Surya agreed. "It is an unscientifically structured body governing Bengaluru, a city projected as the fastest-growing city. You need to restructure the BBMP."

Congress MLA Arshad said the current BBMP Act, passed in 2020, did not go through the consultative process. The law proposes to increase the number of wards in the city from 198 to 243. "It is creating a bigger BBMP than it already is, which won’t help." He said the current structure should be decentralised. "You must empower the ward committee; you can’t expect people to go to the BBMP offices."

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Surya made a strong case for Bengaluru to get a directly elected mayor, a topic he admitted was a "political hot potato". "One political solution is political decentralisation of power in the BBMP with a more powerful, accountable mayor," he said. "What we have now is a mayor with a 12-month term to oversee 198 wards. The first six months go in celebrating and the other six months on planning retirement. No party wants to create a mayoral office that is super powerful. But there are senior leaders in my party who are sympathetic to the idea."

Surya also batted for the creation of an institution that can think for Bengaluru. "Who is thinking about Bengaluru today? Which organisation have we created? If we’re talking about Bengaluru in 2040, we need an institution that is insulated from political pressures," he said.

Right now, Surya said the city’s politics did not involve citizens in the growth narrative. This needs to change, he said.

For 2040, Arshad said that basic infrastructure needed fixing. "How do you handle migrants? What will you do about water with a deficit of 400 MLD already?" he said. "How much waste will you generate in the next 20 years when we’re already producing 6,100 tonnes daily. What about housing? Clean environment?"

Arshad added that Bengaluru also needed uniform development. "East Bengaluru isn’t as developed as the south," he said. "And Bengaluru is a cosmopolitan city. So, we can’t claim that one language can’t be spoken. In Shivajinagar, you’ll see Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Urdu, Hindi… how do you bring synergy? Ultimately, infrastructure should provide peace and harmony."

Responding to this, Surya suggested a social audit on how and where resources are spent. "Maybe we need to spend more energy and resources on public health, education and housing, which are the three primary drivers of the good life," he said.

While Arshad said that Bengaluru was too cosmopolitan for any friction to occur, Surya opined that it was in the nature of Kannadigas to be all-accepting and warm. "That’s why the city has so much ability to attract talent," he said. "We are the coolest people in the country."

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