“BBMP restructuring ineffective without devolution of powers”

The BBMP restructuring committee is examining proposals by various stakeholders and is expected to submit its report by June-end

The term of the BBMP council ends on April 21, 2015. File photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

The State government on Tuesday inadvertently declared its intent to either bifurcate or trifurcate BBMP, as it argued that there was no point in holding polls to the council on schedule as it may be split. The BBMP restructuring committee is expected to submit its report by June-end.

Multiple residents' welfare associations and civic activist groups have made their proposals to the committee during the ongoing consultation process, most of them concurring with a division of BBMP. However, the overriding sentiment in most of these proposals is that without devolution and decentralisation of power, mere territorial division would only add to the chaos that the city’s governance has been.

Most civic activists have demanded that the new corporation should conform with the letter and spirit of the 74th amendment to the Constitution. However, some have also pointed out that the design of the 74th amendment, which opts for standing committees, has also not worked out as councillors are directly handing out contracts leading to collusion.

To correct this, Azim Premji University recommends the mayor-in-council model, apart from implementing the 74th amendment making the ward the most important unit of governance.

Role of parastatals

Another major concern is the role of parastatal agencies, like BDA, Bescom, BWSSB and BMTC, and how the civic body has no control over them nor does it bother to work in tandem.

Azim Premji University’s paper makes an ideal case for ownership of all these agencies to be transferred to BBMP. However, acknowledging that implementing this is unlikely, it has also proposed change in the relationship to a contractual one at the ward level.

The restructuring committee is also considering changing the relationship into one of a principal and vendor.

Financial independence

A strong case is being made for fiscal federalism to be decentralised to the local government level and that the State government should share revenue generated from the city with local corporations.

D. S. Rajashekar of Citizen Action Forum said that any restructuring would be meaningless without a whitepaper on BBMP’s finances.

Some of the proposals have made a pitch for the corporations and the wards within to be devolved of the central pool of revenues on the Centre-State model.