Citizens from East and Mahadevapura zones raise concerns about Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill 

The issues of delimitation that will arise from decentralisation of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) under the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill 2024, the usage of a Kannada word instead of ‘Greater’, and conducting elections for the BBMP were some of the important suggestions provided by citizens at public consultation meetings on the Bill on Monday. 

 The issues of delimitation that will arise from decentralisation of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) under the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill 2024, the usage of a Kannada word instead of ‘Greater’, and conducting elections for the BBMP were some of the important suggestions provided by citizens at public consultation meetings on the Bill on Monday. 

The meetings were held in the East and Mahadevapura zones of the BBMP and attended by Rizwan Arshad, Shivajinagar MLA, who heads the joint legislature committee examining the Bill.

Most citizens flagged the issue of shortage of time to study and analyse the Bill as the draft was made available through a link just a couple of days before the meeting.  

“The time given is extremely short for such an important Bill and is very poorly advertised where many citizens have no access to the notification. Normally, 30 days are given for a full study and a considered response. The first notification of this consultation had no reference or details or transcript of the Bill itself. This was modified and a link was provided only three or four days before the consultation dates,” said a letter submitted by the Citizens’ Action Forum (CAF) to Mr. Arshad. 

Some other citizens pointed out that rather than splitting the BBMP into many smaller bodies, it is essential to constitute the Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC). “There was no mention of the BMPC during the meetings. The population under the BBMP currently is around 1.2 crore. When split, each corporation will have more than 10 lakh people and the Constitution has made it clear that if there are more than 10 lakh people, then there should be an MPC. Hence, if they split the BBMP into 10 parts, then there should be 10 MPCs,” said Kathyayini Chamaraj, civic activist. 

She also said that the formation of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) under the Bill will lead to urban inequality as municipal councils, municipal corporations, and the GBA will all have different laws and rules for urban citizens.  

Shwetha R., a civic activist from Balagere, said that no definitive responses were given during the meeting. “They did not have answers for how many years it would take to implement the Bill or incorporate our suggestions. They did not tell us if the BBMP elections will be conducted after the Bill is passed or if all the infrastructure work that is pending will be taken up on war footing as the problems of the common people cannot wait until the Bill is passed.”