Whitefield Rising backs Greater Bengaluru Bill, calls it a ‘step in the right direction’

Bengaluru: Whitefield Rising, a prominent citizen group advocating for civic reforms in the city’s tech corridor, has welcomed the newly proposed Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill (GBGB), describing it as “a step in the right direction”. The group also reiterated that a separate municipality for Mahadevapura has been its long-standing demand.

"The distance from the decision makers, and the abject condition of the civic infrastructure led the call for a separate corporation to address the huge challenges," Whitefield Rising said in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter).

"While the Bill requires further refinement, it presents an opportunity for incremental improvement in Bengaluru’s governance structure — starting with urgent steps like delimitation based on latest data and conducting municipal elections at the earliest."

The group also outlined some of the "progressive steps" mentioned in the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, which was passed by both the houses of legislature and is currently pending for assent by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot.

Welcoming the plan to disband the BBMP, Whitefield Rising said the civic body had lost the trust of Bengaluru’s citizens. "The current structure, even with the zonal divisions, is so broken that it cannot be fixed by any amount of amendments and fixes. We believe the only way forward is to completely disband this structure and start afresh," the post read.

The group also supported the Bill’s provisions for decentralisation by creating three to five smaller corporations, greater representation, financial autonomy, transparency, and enhanced public participation through ward committees.

It also shared some of the concerns such as delimitation based on outdated data, which fails to reflect the significant population growth of Mahadevapura, veto power to councillors in ward committee meetings, and centralisation of power by appointing Chief Minister as the head of Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC).

Whitefield Rising concluded that while Mahadevapura generates significant tax revenue, its infrastructure needs are proportionately higher as a rapidly developing region.

"Localized access to City Corporation is key instead of having to run to NR Circle (BBMP head office) every time with no result," the post read, stating the approach aligns with the need for manageable governance units as outlined in the 74th Amendment of the Constitution.