the story So Far
A month after the Congress came to power in Karnataka, the state government on 12 June reconstituted the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Reorganization Committee, which was formed by the previous Congress government (between 2013 and 2018). The newly elected Congress government is keen to split BBMP into multiple corporations for ease of administration.
The 2015 committee recommended bifurcating the BBMP into multiple corporations. However, it was not implemented as the courts asked the state government to hold civic elections immediately and the move was politically opposed by the BJP and the JD(S). ), who later came to power and extended the proposal.
Now, with the Congress returning to power in Karnataka, the party is determined to bring back the reconstitution committee, which according to the party, is the “best solution” to fix the city’s governance deficit.
However, with Bengaluru getting bigger every year, the committee has been given a greater mandate to re-imagine the governance and administration of Bengaluru. Owing to the phenomenal demographic and spatial growth of Bengaluru over the last two decades, the committee will cover not only the BBMP, but all concerned civic and infrastructure departments such as the Urban Development Department, Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), Bengaluru Water Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA), city police, fire and emergency services, slum boards, etc., and corporations such as Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESSCOM), Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), and Suburban Rail.
The committee has also been tasked with ensuring deeper decentralization at the ward level with citizens’ participation and proper centralization at the apex level, in keeping with the spirit of the 74th amendment, including setting up of a Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC).
Why restructuring?
The expert committee was initially constituted to suggest how the existing BBMP could be divided into smaller municipal areas. According to the state, Bengaluru had become too large and unwieldy to be managed by a single corporation. The amalgamation of seven City Municipal Councils (CMCs), one Town Municipal Council (TMC) and 110 villages with the erstwhile Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BMP) in 2007 did not yield the expected benefits. The villages added to BBMP still lack basic amenities like underground sewerage, drainage and piped water. With many civic agencies working in silos and BBMP, the city lacked proper governance, administration and capacity of the people. To have a holistic view of the current system and what is the problem with civic agencies meeting citizen expectations, having a Restructuring Committee appears to be the solution for the state.
Head Office of Greater Bangalore Metropolitan Municipality.
Three-tier governance structure, what is the suggested architecture for managing Bengaluru?
The committee recommended an overall structure for the management of Bengaluru, which would be divided into three tiers, with the highest tier being the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), the second tier being the Mayor in the Municipal Corporation (MC)/Council and the third tier – the Ward . The suggested three-tier governance structure focused on providing Metropolitan Planning Committees (MPCs) at the regional level with the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) as the Local Planning Authority (LPA) and strengthening Ward Committees at the lowest level Will go The Ward Committee will give citizens a voice and space to address local urban issues in their neighbourhoods. Each ward shall have a representative Ward Committee with clearly defined functions. The wards will be empowered to take necessary action to rectify the problems faced by the locality.
The Reorganization Committee suggested devolution of powers to smaller governance units with a credible leader at the municipal level, with larger metropolitan governance structures co-existing while protecting devolved powers at lower levels.
I. Ward Committees
As per the recommendations of the committee’s 2015 report, each ward shall have a ward committee consisting of 20 members, half of whom are elected on the basis of proportional representation reflecting the party’s vote share in municipal elections and the other half nominated. A wide spectrum of civil society. Each Ward shall have a Secretary who shall be the Chief Executive responsible for carrying out the decisions of the Ward Committee. Each ward committee will prepare a 5-year ward vision plan, an annual ward development plan and an annual ward budget. Ward committees are required to be consulted on any change in land use in the master plan. The Ward Committees shall be empowered to execute, supervise and audit the functions of the Corporation in the Ward and to retain a certain share of the taxes collected from the Ward for undertaking projects in the Ward as decided by the Ward Committee. However, it remains to be seen whether the state government, especially the legislators who hold the city, will agree to give so much power to the ward committees.
Second. Mayor-in-Council System for Municipal Corporations – MPC
The BBMP Reorganization Committee suggested that the present Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) be divided into five corporations, with a total of 400 wards. It suggested that each municipal corporation would have a mayor-in-council consisting of a mayor, deputy mayor and 10 other members. The Mayor-in-Council, instead of the Commissioner, is vested with the executive powers of the Corporation and shall be collectively responsible to the Corporation. In every Municipal Corporation there shall be a Municipal Accounts Committee to examine the accounts and expenditure of the Municipal Corporation.
Municipal corporations can also constitute subject committees to review and monitor the functioning of the corporation on subjects such as urban planning, public health and waste management. The Municipal Corporation is to be divided into zones and each zone shall have a zonal committee consisting of all the councilors elected from the wards of that zone. The report recommended that the Zonal Committee may monitor the activities of the Corporation to be carried out in several wards within the Zone.
Third. Greater Bengaluru Authority – GBA
The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), which will be a pan-city body to integrate the governance of several corporations and several parastatals, should be headed by the chief minister and over the next ten years, be headed by a directly elected mayor. For the city, the BBMP Reorganization Committee recommended. The report said the GBA consists of the commissioner of the BDA, mayors and two other councilors from all municipal corporations, one MLA from each municipal corporation, two members representing panchayats, executive heads of BWSSB, BMTC, BMRCL and BESCOM, and five experts. Must join. Nominated by the Government in matters relating to urban governance. It suggested that the BDA should be the secretariat of the GBA and the Commissioner of the BDA would be the Member Secretary of the GBA. The GBA should have the powers to supervise and issue directions to BWSSB, BDA, BMTC, BMRCL, BESCOM and any other agency discharging municipal functions in Bengaluru as notified by the government.
How long will it take for the state to implement the Reorganization Committee?
The Congress party in its manifesto promised to introduce a new law for city administration, which would establish a single agency responsible for overseeing all parastatals in the city. The purpose of this law is to replace the current BBMP Act 2020 implemented by the BJP government.
There were apprehensions that like in 2015, the courts might insist on holding elections to the civic bodies immediately and this would derail the reform process. However, the Karnataka High Court has now granted 12 weeks time to the state government to redo the delimitation process, which has also breathed new life into the BBMP reconstitution committee. Sources said the government was keen to introduce a new bill to replace the existing BBMP Act, 2020, within a period of three months to implement its governance reforms for the city, including bifurcating the BBMP.