Ward committees getting popular, 747 meetings held in two months

Ward committees are steadily gaining popularity in the city with the civic body holding 747 meetings in two months.

A collective of citizen groups Bengaluru Ward Samiti Balaga, which collected the data of the meetings held, has urged the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to keep up the momentum by consolidating the ward committee — dubbed the fourth tier of governance.

A total of 2,419 ward committee meetings were held between August 2020 and September 2021 (201/month). There were as many as 1,170 meetings between September 2021 and April 2022 (167/month). The number of meetings touched 747 in the last two months (374/month). The South and West zones held more meetings than others.

The figures were released during the Bengaluru Ward Samiti Balaga Samaavesha held on Sunday at the Government Arts College, KR Circle. Close to 200 citizens and 76 registered residents’ welfare associations took part in the event and shared their experiences and insights about their ward committees. The event was jointly organised by civil society organisations.

Hebbal resident Vidya Goggi said the ward committee meeting discussed the contractor’s failure to install security cameras despite receiving money from the civic body.

“We found out that the BBMP had made a budget provision of Rs 40 lakh for the CCTV cameras. While the payments were released to the contractor, no cameras were seen anywhere in the ward. When we brought it up, the engineers started installing the cameras in just four days,” she said, adding the committee can work wonders if citizens start joining the meeting in big numbers.

Shettihalli resident Venkat Ramanan said he is finding it easy to address civic issues after attending ward committee meetings. “In the past, we were approaching the MLA or MLA’s office. The response was not quick. After attending ward committee meetings, I came into contact with many ward officers. They have been quick in resolving issues,” he said.

Some of them also aired concerns such as the absence of an escalation point to resolve unattended grievances, officers deliberately skipping the meetings, not sharing the minutes of the meetings, etc.

Srinivas Alavilli, Head-Civic Participation, Janaagraha, hoped all political parties include strengthening ward committees in their manifesto.

Speaking at the event, BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath requested citizens to monitor solid waste management, pourakarmikas’ welfare, streetlights and parks. “Citizens should approach zonal commissioners for resolving issues and all zonal commissioners will be in their offices in the afternoon. Divisional-level executive engineers also will be held accountable,” he said.