BENGALURU: Bengaluru legislators have demanded a ward-wise developmental grant of Rs 5 crore each for the 369 wards of the five city corporations.
Commissioners of the corporations presented their proposals at the pre-budget meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, along with ministers, MPs and legislators representing the city, on Friday. In the absence of an elected council, the budget will be presented by officials, most likely on March 30.
“All five commissioners presented the financial status of the corporations. Bengaluru West City Corporation has the least revenue. East and North have a lot of potential as the areas under them are still growing. However, BWCC’s income has saturated and it needs financial aid from the government,” said Rajajinagar MLA Suresh Kumar, who was part of the pre-budget meeting.
Cutting across party lines, legislators representing BWCC, including Mahalaksmi Layout MLA Gopalaiah, Rajarajeshwari MLA Munirathna, Malleswaram MLA Ashwath Narayan and Yeshwanthpur MLA ST Somashekar have raised similar concerns. Kumar said the DCM agreed with them.
Jayanagar MLA CK Ramamurthy said the legislators raised many issues relating to Bengaluru, ranging from encroached footpaths causing trouble to pedestrians and haphazard parking blocking free vehicle movement. “Listing out problems in their areas, legislators sought allocations in the corporations’ budget.
While some legislators demanded more funds, we demanded that each ward be allotted at least a Rs 5 crore developmental fund in the upcoming budget,” he said.
“For the development of Jayanagar 4th Block Complex and BDA complexes in Jayanagar constituency, we have demanded Rs 100 crore. For comprehensive development of parks, we need Rs 25 crore. We placed a request for the construction of flyovers and underpasses in our constituency. To ease traffic in Jayanagar, we have demanded a double-decker flyover from Ragigudda Metro connecting NICE Road,” he said.
DCM Shivakumar, in response to legislators seeking grants of Rs 5-10 crore per ward, said, “Some have demanded the sky. Some have demanded land.”