BENGALURU: The state government will face a big challenge in its plan to split the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) into five corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA). Each corporation can have up to 150 wards with 150 councillors and will need a council hall to accommodate them along with officials, with not less than 50 office rooms and the required staff across its various departments.
Pointing out that the government will have huge infrastructure challenges to run the five corporations, former leader of opposition in BBMP and BJP leader NR Ramesh said, “If we assume that there will be around 100 wards in each corporation, there will be 100 councillors and around 10 nominated councillors. Every month, there should be a council meeting, which will be attended by councillors, MLAs, MPs, BBMP officials and representatives from BWSSB, Bescom etc. We need council halls that can accommodate over 150 people.”
Except the council hall at the BBMP head office, there are no such big halls anywhere under BBMP, he said.
“Each corporation will have over 15 departments, like the revenue, lakes, road infrastructure, health, etc and each needs an office room. Not less than 50 office rooms are needed. Nearly 2-acre land is needed. Finding a location in outer BBMP zones may be easy, but in core Bengaluru it is difficult. The government will need nearly three years to build it.”
Ramesh said the BBMP is already facing a huge staff shortage across all its departments and will need more staff in its transition to GBA. He said GBA is just a tactic to delay BBMP elections. Congress leader and former corporator M Shivaraj said there are existing multiple BBMP offices that can be converted into corporation headquarters. He, however, said identifying locations for five corporations may be challenging.
Shivaraj said, “We have big halls in the city, like IPC in Malleswaram, Mayo Hall, where we can hold meetings. Each corporation can use the council hall at the BBMP headquarters by holding meetings on different dates. If needed, we can build a council hall within a year.”
BBMP Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao said, “To ensure that there is seamless transition, works are on for the downstream activity. Lot of activities are required right from the location of the GBA head office, where the five corporations will be headquartered, the number of staff needed and other downstream work. The BBMP is preparing a report that will be shared with the state government to ensure smooth transition, once the final notification is out.”