Nearly 800 sq km are under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) purview. The United Nations World Population Review estimates that the city’s population will reach 1.8 crore in 2030 after increasing from 7.5 lakh in 1950.
Source: Deccan Herald
Although Bengaluru has established itself as India’s centre of information technology and may have many other such achievements, the BBMP has utterly failed to create a metropolis of the highest calibre. On how to handle this issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party, and the ruling Congress party disagree.
A committee headed by former chief secretary B S Patil was established by the Congress administration to revamp the BBMP during its last time in power (2013u201318). The panel had proposed that the government divide the city into 400 wards and establish a three-tiered form of administration, with five tiny municipalities reporting to the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), which would have a directly elected mayor, and each municipality having its own mayor. Additionally, the Bangalore Development Authority, BWSSB and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Committee are governed by GBA. Then, a bill that divided the BBMP in three was approved by the legislature.
The BJP opposed the plan, which the Centre finally decided against. A new Act authorising zonal committees to ensure decentralisation of administration was introduced in 2020 by the BJP government. A commissioner who answers to the BBMP chief commissioner now oversees each zone. The government said that there would be 243 wards starting in 2022. The B S Patil committee, entrusted with reinventing the city’s governance, has once more been reactivated by the present administration.
Source: CNN- News 18
The BJP asserts that the administration is attempting to emulate Delhi’s unsuccessful corporation-splitting strategy. Positive aspects of the Patil report include the suggestion that smaller local organisations report to the GBA, which will assist decentralisation and integrated development.
In comparison to the Delhi model, this is better. Better cohesiveness will be ensured by the idea to unify numerous civic entities. Bengaluru has grown to be cumbersome. Without a question, the issue needs to be resolved, but the government shouldn’t move too quickly. Instead, it needs to have extensive discussions with all parties involved and come to a lasting resolution. All things considered, the outcome shouldn’t be worse than the problem.
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