The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, flailing about in a sea of scams and financial crunch, has been selected for the Best e-Government Prize by the first World e-Governments Organization of Cities and Local Governments (WeGO).
Announcing this here on Friday, Mayor D. Venkatesh Murthy said the BBMP has secured the first prize in the Efficiency Category. “Of the 90 cities that had applied, BBMP was first shortlisted among five. In the second round, a five-member jury adjudged [us] first. The awards are being given away in four other categories — Services, Open City, Urban Management and Digital Divide.”
WeGo, he said, was an international cooperative body for cities and local governments.
Mr. Murthy admitted that PID (property identification number) given based on GIS had not reached a 100 per cent. “We still have to cover some distance in this regard. However, we are thinking of applying this to include road history, tree history, mapping sanitary, water pipelines and streetlights.”
He said the award would be given away at the second general assembly of WeGo to be held in Barcelona, Spain, on November 12 and 13. “I will be accompanied by the former chairperson of Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance Manjunath Raju, who spearheaded the initiative, the current chairman Muneendra Kumar, and IT Adviser Sheshadri T.”
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Raju said after the system was put in place, the tax collection touched Rs. 1,000 crore. He said with GIS, the BBMP was able to bring in 6.29 lakh properties under the tax net. “This fiscal, the collection is already Rs. 1,010 crore. The BBMP can confidently collect Rs. 1,800 crore by the end of this financial year.”
