BENGALURU: The state government is unwilling to let go of the power of BBMP and Bengaluru needs to be divided into district, zonal and gram panchayat like administration if it wants to see a solution to its problems of bad roads, water connection, transportation and traffic, said civic experts and activists during a panel discussion on ‘Bengaluru Governance an oxymoron’ at Policy Adda, held at the Bangalore International Centre on Sunday.
Meera K of Citizen Matters said, “Messy city is the norm and the systems are designed to fail. How do you pull up the government for such decision-making? The same people get elected each time and there is no accountability.”Civic expert Ravichander, moderating the discussion, said, “The BBMP is not a local government that can pass laws like the central government. It is just a vassal of the state government until we came up with the 73rd and 74th amendment to the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act which are both flawed. BBMP is emasculated and seen as a service agency instead of a government.”
Tara Krishnaswamy, the coordinator, Citizens for Bengaluru, said, “We need decentralisation and merging of parastatals. Roads are streets are a ward subject. Garbage management is at a taluk level or in the case of Bengaluru, at a a zonal level. Water and mobility is at a larger level that exceeds the purview of BBMP. Water is brought in from elsewhere, BMTC and Suburban rail cater to a population beyond BBMP and come under the district level.
We need three such levels of governance as seen in villages for which legislation is needed.”“Declare Bengaluru as a district, and divide it into zones and further wards which will be like gram panchayats. Municipalities like Devanahalli and Tumakuru should be part of the local government as subjects such as water and suburban rail concerns them too,” she said.