BENGALURU: In 2007, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was sanctioned a permanent staff strength of 18,000. A decade on, BBMP has just 9,000 permanent employees, which is merely half the sanctioned strength. This, despite Bengaluru growing in size and number over the past 10 years. The city’s population has gone up from an estimated 70 lakh to roughly 1.1 crore.
It also added 500 sq km to its area in 2007, thus bringing 864 sq km under BBMP jurisdiction. Bengaluru’s problems too have piled up, from bad roads to clogged drains to piling garbage and unmanageable traffic. The recent rain-related chaos only highlighted the inadequacy of the BBMP in tackling the mounting problems of the city. And the woeful shortage of staff is one of the main reasons for this mess.
For the past 10 years, no additional mass recruitment has taken place in the BBMP. BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad said the civic body was mandated to have 18,000 permanent staff members, but has only around 9,000. The number was sanctioned in 2007, after taking into consideration the area under the civic body’s ambit. The Commissioner said, “BMC was 200 sq km then and it has grown to 800 sq km now. Jurisdiction and work increased but not the staff. And we don’t have authority to hire staff by ourselves . We need government’s permission for it, except in the case of SC/ST employees.”
Work in several departments is affected by the shortage. According to former Mayor Manjunath Reddy, the shortage in revenue department directly impacts the civic body’s revenue collection. Reddy said, “Apart from revenue from residential and commercial properties, revenue collection from advertisements is also reduced due to the shortage.”
900 vacancies to be filled
The Commissioner added that the state government had recently sanctioned recruitment for 900 vacancies. IIS c has been entrusted with the recruitment process, and they would carry out all the processes — prepare the question paper, conduct the exam and evaluate the papers, the Commissioner said.