24-04-2025
Governor assents Greater Bengaluru Bill, city may come under multiple civic bodies
Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot has given his assent to the Greater
Bengaluru Governance
Bill 2024 that was passed in both the Houses of the Legislature, last month. The Bill seeks to improve the quality of life for citizens by instituting a decentralized governance framework.
Both Assembly and Council passed the Bill with a set of amendments suggested by the joint house panel. The Governor had earlier returned the Bill to the government seeking certain clarifications.
The Congress regime passed the bill to overhaul Bengaluru's civic body, BBMP's governance structure to manage the city's affairs better. The Bill proposes a
Greater Bengaluru Authority
(GBA) for supervising and coordinating the greater Bengaluru area.
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The Bill paves the way for setting up seven separate
city municipal corporations
in the place of the unwieldy
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike
(BBMP). The move is expected to double are municipal area of Bengaluru from the present 708 sq km.
The proposed law powers ward committees to become basic units of urban governance and facilitate community participation.
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'This Bill marks a landmark step in reforming Bengaluru's governance model. It decentralizes decision-making, empowers zonal committees, and grants financial and administrative autonomy at the grassroots level. With rapid urban growth and a rising population, Bengaluru needed a tailored governance structure - and this Bill delivers exactly that. It promises greater efficiency, accountability, and a renewed focus on citizen-centric services,' Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad (Congress) said in a post on X.
INDUSTRIAL TOWNSHIPS
The government's move to expand Bengaluru city area by splitting its civic body BBMP has also sparked fears of independent townships like Electronic City Industrial Township Authority (Elcita) and Bidadi Industrial Area Township Authority falling apart.
Elcita has been hailed as a successful experiment in managing industrial suburbs. The body governing the electronic city enjoys municipal as well as taxation powers. The civic body manages the 902-acre industrial township on Bengaluru's outskirts that is home to more than 300 companies including Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and Siemens.
Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, speaking on the Bill in the assembly on March 10, regretted helping create Elcita years ago as Urban Development Minister. He called his decision on Elcita a blunder while responding to two BJP MLAs, M Satish Reddy (Bommanahalli) and M Krishnappa (Bengaluru South), both of whom sought inclusion of electronics city into the municipal governance structure of Bengaluru.
There were suggestions on social media to leave the independent township authorities out of the proposed seven corporations, and instead bring other industrialised areas such as Srajapura, Jigani and Bidadi under Greater Bengaluru as they are battling woeful infrastructure, having been governed by local gram panchayats.
The BJP and its political ally JDS, however, have opposed the move, doubting the intentions of the proposed law.
