A strain on the meagre resources available for the outer zones, which were added to the BMP to form Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in 2007, has prompted a unison cry from these areas to split the civic body. At the same time, citizens in the core areas have been opposing a division.
As per the 2011 census, outer zones have the wards with the highest population. An analysis of the data also shows that most of the largest wards and wards with highest populations are in the outer zones while those in the core areas have the highest population density.
Of the 45 wards that have a population of over 50,000, 36 are in the outer zones. Plotting all wards with population over 50,000 on a map almost results in a ring around the city. Civic experts consider the ideal population in each ward to be around 25,000.
“While the data for 2011 is alarming, the city has grown by leaps and bounds at an alarming pace in the past four years, again in the outer zones,” said urban expert Ashwin Mahesh.
A study “Modeling and Simulation of Urbanisation in Greater Bangalore” by Indian Institute of Science predicted a spurt in urbanisation in the northeast and northwest parts in 2020 with the emergence of new clustered urban nuclei on the outer zones.
The BBMP council allots Rs. 3 crore per ward for projects in the newly added areas. Many argue that this allocation is grossly insufficient for wards with high population and a large area, even as such wards clearly lack basic infrastructure. These areas have seen unforeseen urbanisation in recent years, which has not been matched by adequate resources. While most of these areas suffer from inadequate drinking water facilities, many, including upmarket Whitefield, are yet to get a fully functional underground drainage system.
R K Mishra, a member of BBMP Technical Advisory Committee and a member of the Bruhat Whitefield Residents Welfare Association said that the BBMP experiment had clearly failed. “BBMP is non existent in the new areas. Why should we suffer? We want to opt out of BBMP. Smaller municipalities will only help better governance,” he said.
Jayamahal councillor M K Gunasekhar said that political interference and short-sightedness has led to imbalance in allocation of funds with areas in the central areas cornering most of the funds creating a regional imbalance.
