BBMP to split into smaller corporations? Karnataka Government drafts Bill

According to sources in the Karnataka Law Department, a Bill was being drafted for the purpose. “It could be cleared by the Cabinet in the coming days before tabling it in the Legislative Assembly,” a source said.

The reconstitution is expected to be along the recommendations made by the BBMP Restructuring Committee formed in November 2014, during Siddaramaiah’s first tenure as the Chief Minister. The Committee submitted its final report in July 2015. However, the proposal to split the BBMP was met with vehement opposition from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after which the government shelved the plan.

The Committee, subsequently, came up with the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill in 2018. The three-member committee with retired IAS officer B S Patil as its chairman was reconvened in June last year. Recently, it also made a presentation at a meeting chaired by Siddaramaiah with legislators from Bengaluru.

Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad told The Indian Express the state government was keen on implementing a decentralised system. “BBMP is not a scientifically structured organisation that can take care of a large city like Bengaluru,” said Arshad.

The government will take a call in the next few days on how to restructure the civic body. Though details are yet to be finalised, the government is thinking in that direction, he said. “There is a lot of hue and cry when things go bad. A robust system can address the concerns of the public on time,” the MLA said.

Along with the discussion on restructuring, the recent meeting with legislators from Bengaluru is learnt to have deliberated on the much-delayed BBMP polls. The Congress government is learnt to have discussed measures to restructure the civic body and hold elections in tandem.

The Bill proposed in 2018 recommended that the “city’s governance be restructured by creating multiple Municipal Corporations in a three-tier governance framework to ensure that the local government is closer and more accessible to the people. This three-tier governance framework envisages the creation of empowered Ward Committees at the lowest level, a set of Municipal Corporations in the middle level and a Greater Bengaluru Authority.”

The recommendations of the Committee included increasing the number of wards to around 400 to ensure effective administration in BBMP limits spanning around 712 square kilometre.