How Bengaluru's civic management hit the change button
Eighteen years after it was created to cater to a burgeoning city, Bengaluru's municipal body, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), will now make way for a new system of civic governance in India's tech capital. This transition phase formally commenced on April 24 when the Greater Bengaluru Governance (GBG) Act, 2024 was notified.This legislation, passed in March and receiving governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot's assent on April 23, aims to transform the system of governance in Bengaluru by splitting the BBMP into smaller municipal corporations, which would be part of a Greater Bengaluru Authority responsible for city planning.advertisementThe GBG Act was brought in with the objective of decentralising the civic apparatus and to achieve greater coordination among several parastatal agencies that provide various civic amenities in the city.The move had met with some criticism from Opposition parties and civic groups, which argue that it concentrates power with the state government and thereby undermines the 74th Constitutional Amendment's provisions for local self-government. Instead, they recommend strengthening the BBMP and devolving powers that will allow it to function more effectively.
The notification of the GBG Act also means that civic polls in Bengaluru, which have been delayed for five years, will likely not happen anytime soon. The term of the BBMP's previous council lapsed in September 2020; the city has been governed by an administrator since then. Now, the civic restructuring means several milestones have to be crossed before elections can be held.advertisementThe GBG Act requires the government to define the territorial area of the new Greater Bengaluru Authority and constitute the body within 120 days of the Act coming into force.Currently, the BBMP's area of jurisdiction is spread over 786 sq km. The recommendation by a joint legislature committee, which had reviewed the GBG Bill and submitted a report in March, was to redraw this boundary by including peripheral panchayats that have witnessed unregulated urbanisation in recent years.'If you don't regulate it now, it would be a bigger problem. So, we have recommended to integrate all the peripheral panchayats, which are developed now, into the Greater Bengaluru area,' Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad, who chaired the committee, had told INDIA TODAY in March.Additional chief secretary Tushar Giri Nath, who took over as administrator of BBMP on April 30, said discussions are on about the Greater Bengaluru Authority and the options before the government. For him, the task at hand will be to oversee the transition along with M. Maheshwar Rao, who has simultaneously taken over as the BBMP's new chief commissioner.Following the notification of the Greater Bengaluru Authority, the new municipal corporations replacing BBMP will need to be carved out. 'We can do it simultaneously with the Greater Bengaluru Authority or sequentially. Both options are available before the government,' said Giri Nath.advertisementThe GBG Act provides for up to seven corporations with a view for future requirements. For now, three or four corporations are seen as ideal. However, achieving a balance among the new corporations in terms of revenue generation, population density and employment opportunities is going to be the key factor.This has also been a key concern of citizens' groups opposed to splitting up the BBMP. They have cited the experience of Delhi which, in 2022, reverted to a single municipal body by merging three corporations formed a decade ago.In FY25, the BBMP collected Rs 4,930 crore in property tax, the highest in India for the second consecutive year. More than a quarter of this (Rs 1,309 crore) came from the eastern-most Mahadevapura zone, home to a tech corridor. Of the total eight BBMP zones, the east zone came next with property tax collection of Rs 834 crore, followed by south zone with 733.65 crore. The north-western zone of Dasarahalli had the lowest collection of Rs 153 crore.For the current fiscal, the BBMP has set an overall target of Rs 5,716 crore as property tax. Karnataka deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar, who is also the minister in charge of Bengaluru, has said he plans to convene an all-party meeting to seek suggestions on the way ahead.advertisementSubscribe to India Today Magazine
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