What is BBMP Restructuring Committee and how will it help the fast-growing Bengaluru?  Premium

The State government on June 12, reconvened the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Restructuring Committee, which the previous Congress regime (between 2013 and 2018) had formed. The newly-elected Congress government is keen on splitting the BBMP into multiple corporations for ease of administration.

A month after Congress came to power in Karnataka, the State government on June 12 reconvened the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Restructuring Committee, which the previous Congress regime (between 2013 and 2018) had formed. The newly-elected Congress government is keen on splitting the BBMP into multiple corporations for ease of administration. 

The committee’s recommendation to split BBMP into multiple corporations dates back to 2015. However, it was not implemented then, as the courts asked the State government to hold civic polls immediately and there was political opposition to the move by the BJP and the JD(S), who later came to power and spiked the proposal.

Now, with the Congress gaining power back in Karnataka, the party is determined to bring back the Restructuring Committee, which according to the party, is the “best solution” to fix the city’s governance deficit.  

However, with Bengaluru growing larger each year, the committee has been given a larger mandate to reimagine Bengaluru’s governance and administration. Due to the unprecedented demographic and spatial growth of Bengaluru over the last two decades, the Committee will be covering not only the BBMP, but all related civic and infrastructure departments like the Urban Development Department, the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), the Bangalore water supply and sewerage board (BWSSB), the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA), the city police, the Fire and Emergency Services, the Slum Board, etc., and corporations like the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom), Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), and Suburban Rail. 

The committee has also been tasked with ensuring deep de-centralisation at the ward level with citizens participating and appropriate centralisation at the apex levels, while being consistent with the spirit of the 74th Amendment including the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) set up. 

The Expert Committee was initially constituted to suggest how the existing BBMP could be divided into smaller municipal areas. According to the State, Bengaluru had grown too large and unwieldy to be managed by a single corporation. The 2007 amalgamation of the erstwhile Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BMP) with seven City Municipal Councils (CMC), one Town Municipal Council (TMC) and 110 villages had not yielded the expected gains. The villages added to BBMP still lacked basic amenities like underground sewerage, drainage and piped water. With multiple civic agencies operating in silos and a BBMP, the city lacked appropriate governance, administration and people capacity. To have a holistic view of what ails the current set up and civic agencies in delivering on citizen expectations, having a Restructuring Committee is seem as the solution for the State. 

The Committee recommended a holistic structure for managing Bengaluru which would be divided into three levels with the highest level being Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), Municipal Corporation (MC)/Mayor in Council at the second level, and the third level - the Ward. The three-tier governance framework suggested would focus on providing for the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) at the regional level with the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) as a Local Planning Authority (LPA) and strengthening the ward committees at the lowest level. The ward committee will give voice and a place for citizens to address local urban issues in their neighborhood. Each ward will have a representative ward committee with clearly defined functions. The wards will be empowered to take necessary action to fix issues faced by the locality.