BNP alleges lacunae in ₹120 crore expenditure of ward grant
The Hindu
A ground-level report from all the 198 wards by the Bengaluru Navanirmana Party (BNP) found that in more than half the wards, BBMP nodal officers did not know of the ₹60 lakh budget allocated to wards
A ground-level report from all the 198 wards by the Bengaluru Navanirmana Party (BNP) found that in more than half the wards, BBMP nodal officers did not know of the ₹60 lakh budget allocated to wards for various development works. This, BNP said, showed the complete ‘inefficiency, lack of process and fundamental lacunae’ in the expenditure of ₹120 crore ward grants.
It also alleged that Ward Committee (WC) meetings were not happening, nor was there any system in place to track if meetings were being held. Only 23% of the wards were confirmed to be holding meetings.
Presenting the findings here on Monday, BNP founder and general secretary Srikanth Narasimhan said BBMP announces many projects with much fanfare, and almost all of them end up failing miserably on the ground. “Even this allocation was pre-emptively hailed, termed as a landmark move towards citizen participation in local governance. However, given past experience, BNP has launched a campaign called ‘LekkaBeku’ with the objective of involving citizens and driving transparency in the budget which has been announced,” he said.
In 2011, the Karnataka government announced that five botanical gardens will be developed on the lines of the Lalbagh Botanical Garden in Bengaluru across the State. But according to the latest developments, there will only be four such gardens as the Horticulture Department is most likely to drop the project that was supposed to come up in Chikkaballapura district.