Absence of tiered and participatory development plans, institutional public participation platforms, such as area sabhas, design standards to guide execution of city projects and buoyant revenue streams were among the causes that hurt Bengaluru’s prospects of posting good scores in the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) survey 2016.
The survey was carried out by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy.
Bengaluru was ranked 16 among 21 cities, below Patna, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. One of the reasons is the lack of a Metropolitan Planning Committee anchored by elected civic representatives to formulate plans for the future. “The committee should be making the master plan for the city, not the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). It does not mean that the BDA’s powers should be diluted, but that it should be made accountable,” said V.R. Vachana, Associate, Advocacy and Reforms, Janaagraha.
The survey pointed to major issues plaguing Bengaluru under the ‘city-systems components’, which include urban planning, urban capacities and resources, empowered and legitimate political representation, transparency, accountability and participation.
Bengaluru is said to be collecting less than one-tenth of its property tax potential. The survey said Bengaluru could improve its score by boosting collection of property tax. The ‘high churn’ in the post of municipal commissioner was also cited as a factor.
“The BBMP has had seven commissioners in five years. The mayor’s tenure is only one year. These impact continuity,” Ms. Vachana said. The fact that the mayor is indirectly elected too was factored in. Chennai too suffered a setback after doing away with direct mayoral elections.
Reforms proposed
Among the reforms suggested were amendment of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1971 to mandate regional, municipal and ward-level plans in a ‘nested structure with concurrent timelines’, constitution of a Metropolitan Planning Committee, amendment of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 to empanel CAs to audit accounts and put annual reports in the public domain; extend the mayor’s tenure to five years; devolve powers to set tax rates for profession and entertainment tax; and establishment office of ombudsman with the responsibility of addressing civic service issues and inter-agency coordination.
Reacting to the findings, BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad said though there is scope for improvement, a rapidly growing city like Bengaluru cannot be compared with cities half its size and population. He pointed out that the BBMP is instituting transparency measures, such as putting details of civil works in the public domain.
“As for property tax, we have crossed the ₹2,000 crore mark, which is a first in the history of BBMP,” he added. He agreed on the need for stability and extending tenures of the mayor and commissioner.
The standings
Rank 2016 - City - Rank 2015
1 - Thiruvananthapuram - 1
2 - Pune - 4
3 - Kolkata - 3
4 - Mumbai - 2
5 - Hyderabad - 6
6 - Bhopal - 5
7 - Kanpur - 9
8 - Chennai - 8
9 - Delhi - 7
10 - Bhubaneswar - 18
11 - Patna - 11
12 - Lucknow - 10
13 - Ranchi - 14
14 - Ahmedabad - 16
15 - Raipur - 13
16 - Bengaluru - 12
