The A in GBA: Authority, Activity, Achievement or Accountability?

A little less than two decades ago, the Karnataka government decided that all of the Bengaluru urban area should be one municipality, and abolished several city councils and over 100 panchayats that surrounded it to form the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. We were told that it would be easier and more uniform to have all those outlying areas managed coherently with the big city in the centre, and administration would dramatically improve.

That experiment is dead. This time, we were told that it would be much better if governance in the surrounding areas is more accessible and accountable to the people, and the new cities could even compete among themselves in a friendly and positive way. Bengaluru is still great, but the ‘Mahanagara’ was probably a mistake, and we should correct it. Out with BBMP, therefore, and welcome to the Greater Bengaluru Authority, home of five shiny new municipal corporations.

But what’s new? What is the ‘A’ in GBA? The notification of the new cities has been followed by a flurry of activity – roads being tarred, footpaths being cleared of obstructions, waste being removed from black spots – that is promptly documented in social media posts. All of this is good, of course, although many citizens have questioned the quality of a lot of this work, and it remains to be seen if it is also temporary. A sudden rush of activity alone cannot reverse the fallout of underlying problems. Our cities need a rush of funding – nearly all our taxes go to the state and Centre, leaving local councils stretched to do anything more than patchwork. They also need a surge in empowerment; if nearly every project has to be approved by GBA and the state government, the new commissioners can’t really speed things up much.

The corporations are doing their bit. What about GBA? The new legislation intends that this authority should be able to coordinate better between the cities, direct major infrastructure projects, and solve problems that a municipality cannot. Perhaps that will happen. For now, however, GBA is mostly sharing pictures and posts from the corporations on its social handles.

The government also decided that, in addition to overseeing the new corporations, GBA will be the planning body for Bengaluru. In our city, ‘plan’ is mostly fiction; the Bangalore Development Authority has firmly established that. It has been packed off beyond urban limits. The cities of Bengaluru will now be planned by GBA. Same bottle, new label – perhaps new wine too, in time?

A lot of this activity still feels like moving pieces on a chessboard on the deck of the Titanic. The most recent reminder of this came from Sarjapur Road, where the government pleaded for land from a private company to help improve traffic in the area. The response was telling. Premji not only pointed out that the land is private and its use is subject to obligations and compliances; he also hinted at what’s missing – the government had failed to properly plan the area.

It will take time to make the city more liveable, even with new efforts. Those of us who are not thinking about leaving can only hope that GBA will achieve something different from BBMP and BDA. There is every risk that ‘bad plus bad will still equal bad’.

Meanwhile, the High Court is looking closely to decide whether all of this is illegal. Routine administration is supposed to be done by the corporations, and planning by the Metropolitan Planning Committee, which doesn’t even exist. So what’s GBA doing these things for? On a chessboard, there are rules about how each piece can move, but the government hopes that if it adds an entirely new piece, it can move it around as it pleases.

There is one early sign of hope. It is certainly easier to engage with the new, smaller corporations. I visited the South Corporation office along with a few others to meet the new officials, and I found that other groups were doing the same. It has become easier to discuss among ourselves as well as with the bureaucrats, because the corporation is now nearer to us. Officers are also keen to make their mark among peers in the other cities. It is up to citizens to make use of this new accessibility.

Will proximity also improve accountability? Consistently over the last two decades, the quality of a lot of work has been poor, wasteful expenditure was rampant, serious issues remained neglected, and the participation of people in decision-making was thwarted repeatedly. The starting score, as a result, is 0 out of 4, and people no longer even believe that local governance can be a force for good. That’s the page we need to turn.

(The writer is a social entrepreneur, founder of Mapunity and LVBL, and co-founder, Lithium, wakes up with hope for the city and society, goes to bed with a sigh)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.