Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar admits to poor coordination among Bengaluru’s civic agencies causing infrastructure bottlenecks

Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Tuesday admitted that a lack of coordination among civic agencies, such as BBMP, BDA, BWSSB and Bescom, is causing infrastructure and civic bottlenecks, and said he will hold a meeting with all legislators of Bengaluru on July 27 to discuss improving coordination among various agencies of Bengaluru for better governance.

Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Tuesday admitted that a lack of coordination among civic agencies, such as BBMP, BDA, BWSSB and Bescom, is causing infrastructure and civic bottlenecks, and said he will hold a meeting with all legislators of Bengaluru on July 27 to discuss improving coordination among various agencies of Bengaluru for better governance.

In reply to a question by C.K Ramamurthy (BJP) and issues raised by Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok and senior member S. Suresh Kumar, Mr. Shivakumar said: “I agree with the concerns raised by the members that there is a lack of coordination among various agencies of Bengaluru. We have done a lot of work to improve the inter-agency coordination over the last one year, but I am not successful.”

He said issues related to drinking water, solid waste management, traffic congestion, streetlights, tax collection, and greenery would be discussed in the meeting, he said.

Mr. Suresh Kumar demanded the constitution of a task force at the Assembly constituency level for better coordination among the civic agencies. An umbrella organisation should be established at the city level as none of the agencies talk to each other to solve the problems, he said.

Mr. Ashok claimed discrimination against the BJP constituencies in the allocation of funds and said “Brand Bengaluru” would be sustained only by developing the entire city and not just constituencies represented by the Congress legislators.

Mr. Ramamurthy emphasised on the poor quality of roads filled with potholes which has claimed lives. He demanded asphalting of roads for the smooth flow of traffic.

Mr. Shivakumar said ₹1,790 crore will be spent in the city for the development of infrastructure, including white-topping, integrated metro road flyover, underpasses, integrated road and rail flyover during 2023-26. The State government and the BBMP will spend ₹3,450 crore during 2023-26, he said.