BENGALURU: Footpaths and walkability were the city's most pressing issues in 2017 according to a survey conducted by Ichangemycity, a wing of Janaagraha, a city-based non-profit organisation. The 2018 version of the MyCityMyBudget survey, which seeks to collect inputs from citizens ahead of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike budget, started on Thursday.
Speaking on the occasion, Sapna Karim, head, civic participation, Janaagraha, spoke about the same campaign and its effects the previous year. She said around 40,000 Bengalureans had given 67,114 inputs of which 57,197 were relevant to the BBMP and were passed on to the civic body. Of these, 12,468 inputs (21.8 %) were considered in the allocated budget and are in the pipeline for execution as projects in the current year. These projects are worth Rs 515 crore.
"Of the 12,468 budget inputs, now under execution in the current year, 34% are for street-lights, 27% for roads and 21% for roadside drains and the rest are for other civic infrastructure like parks, public toilets, etc," Karim said.
The campaign involves going around the city in a 'budget bus' to certain locations, where volunteers will encourage citizens to provide their inputs via a form. The form will be available at ward offices, Indira Canteens and online on the group’s website.
BBMP Special Commissioner (Finance) Manoj Rajan, IFS, who was present on the occasion, said, "The analysis shows a mapping of 22% projects to citizen inputs and this is a good start.”
Ward sabhas
Another feature of the campaign is to conduct 'ward sabhas,' where citizens engage on the implementation of ward level budgets and civic projects. A total of 20 sabhas held over 2016 and 2017 were attended by 973 citizens from 140 RWAs and 194 officials of civic agencies.