2023 has been a rollercoaster ride for Bengaluru.
‘Work from home’ started fading away from our lives and the notorious traffic jams were back to pre-Covid levels. The booming Bengaluru economy got back on track, bringing with it lakhs of new vehicles to our already congested city. The much-awaited Namma Metro to Whitefield became a reality, enabling a lakh of people, who would otherwise use personal vehicles, to start using public transport. The free bus scheme for women, “Shakti”, by the new Congress government boosted BMTC bus ridership by a stunning 30%, prompting the purchase of more city buses, a long-pending demand. #Personal2Public initiative is trying to nudge citizens to switch to public transport for daily commute by improving first and last-mile access. Bengaluru became the third city in India to publish a City Climate Action Plan this year.
Namma Raste, an exhibition and convention by BBMP, brought much-needed attention to streets and design. Bengaluru Habba celebrated the city’s rich and vibrant cultural heritage and dynamism over ten days.
It was an election year for our state and city, but, sadly, not for the city corporation, which continues to function without the Council, mayor or corporators. The monthly BBMP Council meeting where corporators highlighted issues from the ground is now a distant memory. The desperate need to manage Covid at ward levels led to nodal officers and informal ward committees being appointed and they helped bridge the gap. But the frenzy around assembly elections meant an abrupt end to those as well, thereby denying citizens a forum to hold officials accountable.
Two tragic incidents left a deep scar this year. In May, 22-year-old Bhanu Rekha lost her life after the car she was in got stuck in a flooded KR underpass, a few hundred metres from Vidhana Soudha. In November, 23-year-old Soundarya and her nine-month-old daughter Suviksha lost their lives after stepping on a live wire in Whitefield. In what is becoming an annual statistic, 823 people lost their lives in road accidents, making our city dangerous for pedestrians. Lack of empowered and decentralised city governance and formal avenues for citizen participation are root causes of many issues that plague our city.
What can we expect in 2024?
We have many good laws and policies that are yet to see the light of the day. The BBMP Act 2020 that envisions decentralised administration at zonal level is yet to be implemented. BMLTA gave us much-needed coordination between transport agencies, but remains on paper. Parking policy is approved but paused. The Active Mobility Bill is progressive for pedestrian rights, but yet to be introduced. While tunnels are being discussed, the Master Plan seems to be forgotten altogether! The Metro yellow line to Electronic City will bring much-needed relief as lakhs of people that work there will have access to public transport. We can expect more feeder buses from BMTC. Suburban train seems to be moving again, perhaps due to upcoming general elections.
There is a decent chance that elections to BBMP will be held this year. If not a constitutional obligation, the court will force the State Government to do so. If elections do happen, we will get a mayor for 2.5 years instead of one year. There will also be a zonal ‘mayor’ and council. The BBMP must constitute ward committees in a fair and transparent manner to be inclusive and represent the diversity of the ward. Funds and functions must be devolved to zonal and ward levels.
The State Government must fill the vacancies in BBMP and other civic agencies. Very few cities experience the kind of explosive growth we did. Our civic agencies have been asked to deliver beyond their capacity for years which makes them overworked and under-appreciated. Engineers and health inspectors need advanced training to run a mega city. Bengaluru has many citizen groups and active citizens in almost every ward, working on a wide range of issues, including lakes, waste management, streetlights, water, environment and much more.
They have working relationships with various departments and proactively participate in governance and strive to resolve local issues. But without ward committees chaired by elected corporator, council, standing committees and the mayor, they have no formal avenues to engage and escalate. Our city has always had a galaxy of visionary leaders that made it a crown jewel of India. Our city continues to deliver a decent quality of life despite challenges. The 28 city MLAs have a great responsibility to empower the third tier of governance. They must begin by fighting for BBMP elections.