Three committees, that were constituted to look into the increasing revenue of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), are likely to be dissolved. City in-charge Minister, R. Ramalinga Reddy, has written to Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana and BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan, and directed them to dissolve the three committees.
The three committees are: Optic Fibre Cables (constituted in September 2013), Advertisement (constituted in May 2014) and Revenue (constituted in May 2014). While the OFC committee was constituted to crack down on the illegal laying of cables, the advertisement committee was formed to check the mushrooming of illegal hoardings in the city. The revenue committee was constituted to look into the ‘A’ Khata scam. Highly placed sources said that Mr. Lakshminarayan is expected to issue an order dissolving the committees on Wednesday.
Mr. Reddy told The Hindu that according to section 74 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, there already were 12 different standing committees in the BBMP. He maintained that the constitution of the three committees was illegal. “These committees are taking away the powers of the 12 committees. The KMC Act does not mandate the constitution of other committees and thus, there is no need for these three committees,” he noted, while adding that Opposition leader B.N. Manjunath Reddy had written to him in this regard.
Mr. Manjunath Reddy claimed that the committees were formed unilaterally and its members chosen without any consensus. That apart, the three committees often summoned BBMP officials to attend meetings. “If the officials are only attending meetings, when will they work on addressing citizens’ problems? These were practical issues were being overlooked,” he said.
However, a member of one of the now to-be dissolved committees said there was a lobby to scrap them. “This is to cover-up scams that would have exposed maladministration in the BBMP. The committees were functioning without any extra expenditure on the BBMP. That apart, they had also helped to bring in around Rs. 90 crore in revenue to an almost bankrupt civic body. By dissolving them, whose interest is the government protecting ?” he asked.
