More concrete and less green, but citizens have a bigger say in Bengaluru budget
I was pleasantly surprised to see a fully packed Town Hall for the BBMP Budget presentation today. Besides BBMP officials and media, I saw many citizens. While the presence of citizens did not make up for the fact that the budget should have been presented by the chairperson of the Standing Committee (finance minister of BBMP) to the Council, with the mayor and corporators, it was good to see BBMP make efforts to invite citizens.
Decentralisation has been taking root in the BBMP for the past couple of years, ever since Covid made it clear that ward-level interventions are key for effective delivery of services, with active citizen engagement in the form of Ward Committees. BBMP must be commended for continuing to hold ward committee meetings twice a month across all 243 wards, and increasing ward level allocations to Rs 2 crore this year, the highest so far. This means citizens have a bigger say in how these funds are spent in their wards, though it is yet to be realised in practical terms. BBMP seems to be committed to zonal and divisional level decentralisation, and the intent to consider reforms suggested by the Administrative Reforms Committee is a positive sign.
BBMP articulated the new model for solid waste management in the budget, a key part of this is the call for self-sufficient wards that have both dry and wet waste processing, something that has been a long-pending demand and finally seems to be taking shape. The less waste that travels, the better it is. We need to eliminate landfills completely, and citizens have a big role to play in making this happen as we, the citizens, produce all the waste, not the BBMP!
I was happy to see BBMP move forward on the welfare of street vendors, though the budget allocation of Rs 25 crore seems too low. Street vendors are an integral part of our daily city life, yet they have been pushed and pulled in many directions. I hope this year, street vendors will be given due recognition and dignity.
BBMP’s obsession with flyovers comes to the fore once again in this budget. As the budget highlights, we already have 42 flyovers and 28 underbridges, yet ours is the most congested city. BBMP needs to realise that the focus must be on public transport, walking and cycling. Unlike the metro, bus and suburban train, walking and cycling are entirely under the aegis of BBMP, and are a big part of fighting climate change. BBMP should have gone all out to make Bengaluru the best in our country for walking and cycling.
While I’m happy to see a well balanced budget that reflects better fiscal discipline than previous years, I feel both the Union and state governments do not share a fair share of tax revenues that Bengaluru produces. How will the city manage growth without massive investment in infrastructure and capacities of municipal corporations? The paltry sum of Rs 461 crore from the Government of India is a stark reminder that Bengaluru gives plenty to the nation but doesn’t get it back.