Expert committee recommends creation of five mini Bengaluru councils

The committee has recommended a three tier governance system for Bengaluru city comprising of Wards, Municipal Corporations and a Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA).

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The committee has suggested the setting up of a Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) that will initially be chaired by the Chief Minister for five or ten years and later by a directly elected Metropolitan Mayor.

“There is no legal arrangement at the state level for managing a metropolitan city. A new Bengaluru Region Act will be needed to enable it,” the committee report states.

According to the report the present 198 ward monolithic BBMP spread over 708 sq km should be divided into five municipal corporations comprising some 400 wards for the present population of 10 million people.

Under the present system wards are grossly mismatched with 21 wards having more than 30,000 population and 43 wards having more than 50,000 population.

The ward population could be fixed at 20,000 in growth areas and 30,000 in the core areas to allow for a balance to be develop over the next decade, the committee has said.

“The benefits of a five corporation solution was expected in terms of significantly better revenue realisation due to greater focus on raising resources and incentives for higher property tax collections. The garbage issue could be more effectively resolved over five corporations with a focus on segregation at source and decentralised processing by waste streatms. Five commissioners and 10 zonal commissioners overseeing the administration in their designated areas would be a lot more effective than the current set up. It would also make for healthy competitive spirit between the five entities,” the committee opined in the report.

Chief minister Siddaramaiah said that the government will take an appropriate decision once he goes through the report. “A select committee of the legislative council is yet to file its report about the division of BBMP. The government will take necessary action after we go through both reports,” Siddaramaiah said.