Plan before you build

Instead of creating a task force, the government should empower the Metropolitan Planning Committee to provide a vision for the city

It is heartening to see the new government in Karnataka focusing on Bengaluru’s improvement. Sheer neglect by civic authorities and state government’s inability or indifference to chalk out a strategy to guide the city’s development has led to chaos in the governance of India’s IT capital.

Whatever the past blunders, the question now is “how to move forward and make Bengaluru more livable. We should not be too obsessed with ideas of a global city or high international ambitions. The vibrant hi-tech community will take care of that. The government must be more concerned about basic infrastructure and hassle-free services for small, big or global players. The first task is to set clear priorities, time schedules and rigorously monitor progress. Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has made a good beginning by visiting all civic bodies and holding discussions with stakeholders.

Considering the complexity of metropolitan governance and Bengaluru’s needs, I propose the following 10-point action plan (broad indicators).

1. Fix routine administration

The fundamental problem of Bengaluru’s governance is neglect of day-today administration -- keeping streets and public spaces clean, walkable footpaths, garbage, permissions for water and electricity connections, issue of khatas, building permits, birth and death certificates, vehicle licences, sale deeds, registration of documents and such matters that affect people. Ensure these services are delivered efficiently without harassment public and respond to grievances promptly.

2. Plan before you build

A basic principle of town planning is ‘survey before you plan, plan before you build’ which has been ignored by planners and builders. Once known as a well-planned city, Bengaluru has turned into an ill planned city. The Revised Master Plan is awaiting approval from the government for nearly four years. Buildings come up across the city and along the periphery with hardly any consideration for zoning regulations, exerting pressure on infrastructure and causing inconvenience. Officials must ensure constructions conform to legal provisions on the ground after carrying out physical inspections. Initiate the process of preparing a new master/development plan within a month.

3. Infrastructure development

Focus on three areas: Roads, including drains and street lighting, water supply and public transport. Quality must be the key in respect of roads; to augment water supply, focus on water conservation instead of capital intensive projects drawing water from long distances. City transportation is fraught with serious problems. Free bus travel for women may make bus travel more popular but the fleet has to be increased two-three fold. While improving public transport, there is need to limit use of private transport to reduce congestion.

4. Mobilise resource

Property tax being a major source of revenue for BBMP, its potential must be fully utilised. Do not raise tax rates but plug loopholes. First, bring all untaxed properties into the tax net and revise taxes of underassessed properties. A number of properties have been leased out at a nominal rent. They can be reviewed to raise the lease rentals or resume the property where it has been unused or misused. User charges for water are too low resulting in wastage of water. They may be raised to realistic levels. The tariffs for electricity and bus transport have turned a bit messy on account of the guarantees but they need to be reviewed, possibly after Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

5. Decentralise: Split BBMP into smaller Corporations

BBMP is one of the largest municipal corporations and also one of the poorest, compared to its size (780 sq km) and economy. One reason for its inefficiency is it has become unwieldy with 243 wards. How do you expect one Mayor with a one-year term and one commissioner with an uncertain tenure and senior officers to gain an understanding of the city? It is time to split the mammoth civic body into 3-6 smaller corporations. This is a difficult but an inevitable exercise for effective service delivery.

6. Make MPC an effective planning body-Reorganise BDA

Smaller corporations do not mean a smaller city. Bengaluru will continue to be a single metropolitan city for the purposes of planning, economic and infrastructure development. Planning and coordinating must therefore vest with the Metropolitan Planning Committee, a constitutional body with representation of elected representatives and experts. Instead of creating task forces or committees, empower the MPC to provide the vision and direction for Bengaluru. Expert committees can function under the aegis of MPC and provide inputs for decision making. BDA may be restructured to function purely as a city infrastructure development agency.

7. Ward Committees-Citizen Participation

Ward committees have been vested with some powers to deal with local issues but their functioning leaves much to be desired. It is essential to strengthen the relationship between ward committees and citizens through RWAs and civil society networks. The councilor, who is the chairperson of the committee, must assume leadership and interact with people. Provide adequate space for people to contribute to city governance.

8. Strengthen institutions

Major weaknesses of civic bodies like BBMP, BDA etc are lack of adequate and well qualified personnel. You can’t expect them to deliver without the right tools. BBMP has one of the lowest population-employee ratios and the situation is aggravated by a large number of vacancies. Initially, appoint technically competent persons known for their integrity, if need be, from the open market and initiate a programme to upgrade skills of existing personnel.

9. Adopt modern technology

Bengaluru may be a hitech city and its civic institutions have made some progress in e-governance, but they are yet to adopt modern technology in cleaning of streets, waste disposal, construction and management.

10. City leadership

Urban governance in India has suffered for want of city leadership. For the present, the Deputy CM himself may function as city leader but he is not an elected representative of the city. The government must strengthen city local government as a political institution accountable to the people, and gradually minimise its own role in governing the city but without abdicating its responsibility of oversight.

(The writer is former chief secretary, Government of Karnataka)