Bengaluru: BBMP launches campaign seeking citizens’ inputs ahead of budget
This year, the 'MyCityMyBudget' campaign will focus on collecting budget inputs from citizens with a special focus on parks, footpaths and public toilets
4 min read
BBMP chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta flags off the campaign on WednesdayBruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and NGO ‘Janaagraha’ jointly launched this year’s ‘MyCityMyBudget’ campaign seeking citizens’ participation in the BBMP Budget 2022-23 at the civic agency’s head office on Wednesday.
This year, the ‘MyCityMyBudget’ campaign will focus on collecting budget inputs from citizens with a special focus on parks, footpaths and public toilets. The ‘budget bus’ will traverse across the city and collect inputs from people in different neighbourhoods of Bengaluru till March 15. ‘Janaagraha’ will collate all the inputs received, analyse and provide the report to BBMP for incorporation in the upcoming city budget.
‘MyCityMyBudget’ is an annual participatory budgeting initiative, started by ‘Janaagraha’ in collaboration with the BBMP in 2015.
Flagging the campaign, BBMP chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta said, “The BBMP ward committee meetings are being conducted regularly. The BBMP released Rs 60 lakh to each of the 198 ward committees for the first time last year. Participatory budgeting initiatives such as ‘MyCityMyBudget’ should become a nationwide movement. When citizens participate in budgets, they understand the processes as well as the complexities. This will in turn help in prioritising on how we can solve civic issues, using the existing budget.”
“We invite citizens to submit their budget inputs online by visiting the website mycitymybudget.in or through the budget bus which will visit all the wards in the coming days,” he added.
“Year after year, the BBMP invites citizens to participate in making our city budget. Very few cities in India do this. Janaagraha is proud to be a partner in this effort, ensuring voices from all sections are being heard and actionable inputs are provided to the BBMP in time. More than 40 citizen groups come together to make this happen in their localities. Last year, in a historic move, the BBMP entrusted ward committees with Rs 60 lakh budget to make local decisions. This opened up new frontiers of citizen participation in many wards, where citizens collaborated with BBMP to identify footpaths that needed to be fixed. This year, the focus will continue to be on footpaths, public toilets and parks. We hope to see a positive difference in the quality of footpaths and toilets and parks this year,” said Srinivas Alavilli, head of civic participation, Janaagraha.
The ‘budget bus’
Sapna Karim, also head of civic participation, Janaagraha, said: “The BBMP made a pioneering start last year by setting budgets for Ward Committees to utilise. A first in the country I am sure. It is heartening to note the BBMP’s commitment to continue participatory budgeting and strengthen ward committees by launching ‘MyCityMyBudget’ for the sixth year running. Citizens and community groups have been of great support and clearly history is being written on local governance and citizen engagement in our city.”
Ward committee members from five different wards (Varthuru, Banaswadi, Gottigere, Radhakrishna, Sanjaya Nagara) presented walkability reports from their wards and how they plan to use the Rs 20 lakh funds for footpath improvements to the chief commission on this occasion.
“People need good walkable footpaths. We have participated in the walkability survey and identified areas that are challenging for pedestrians to walk. We request the BBMP to ensure Bengaluru becomes a safe place for citizens,” said Geetha Gooty, ward committee member from Sanjay Nagar.
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