It was called ‘Corporator #1 Namma Samiti Puraskaara’, but the award was given to 51 councillors of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Sunday. The winners included Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun, her deputy B. Bhadre Gowda, Opposition Leader Padmanabha Reddy, and former Ruling Party leaders R.S. Sathyanarayana and M. Shivaraju.
Instituted by Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), councillors were chosen based on the number of ward committee meetings held between December 2018 and June this year. All the 51 councillors have held at least four meetings during this period.
The larger aim, though, is to indirectly nudge more councillors to conduct ward committee meetings. Former Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde, who was the chief guest at the event, spoke about the politics, spirit of public service and citizens’ participation. He reminded elected representatives that they must uphold constitutional values while discharging their duties.
Srinivas Alavilli, co-founder of CfB, said, “After 27 years of the Nagarapalika Act, the dream of decentralisation is coming true with ward committees finally becoming functional. We have to acknowledge and appreciate councillors for encouraging citizen participation in decision-making by regularly holding ward committee meetings. We hope these awards inspire all 198 councillors to not only hold monthly ward committee meetings, but also drastically improve the quality of the meetings.”
Kathyayini Chamaraj, a civic activist and member of a ward committee, pointed out that currently, meetings are being held in only 50% of the wards. There is no clause in the rules for any repercussions or penalty on councillors who don't hold the meetings. “Lack of accountability is also a major problem in the functioning of these committees, which is further amplified in the process of formation of ward committees,” she said.
Ward committee members are not elected, but nominated by the councillor, who also wield the power to veto nominees. She suggested inclusion of non-political persons in ward committees.
On the occasion, a short film on ward committees was screened, followed by a skit by children from Jwala Mukhi and a video tribute to playwright Girish Karnad by actor Prakash Belawadi.
