Bengaluru: One year term not enough for Mayor

Bengaluru: "One year is not enough for a BBMP Mayor to put his vision into action," said former Mayor Goutham Kumar at the online roundtable was organised by Janaagaraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, as an opportunity for the corporators to share their experiences, insights and their side of the story, during their tenure. Kumar's tenure ended on September 10.

The 1.5 hour session, was attended by more 200 participants. It was moderated by Janaagraha Civic Participation heads, Srinivas Alavilli and Sapna Karim. "Fifty thousand crores of BBMP property is still not with BBMP. We need to claim it back by appointing officials who monitor this," stressed Goutham Kumar.

Speaking about his term, he said "For a city like Bengaluru, there is an urgent need to design a comprehensive development plan and a one-year term for a Mayor is not enough to implement the same." He mooted for a minimum of 2.5 years. "We need revenue for development. If we streamline our properties and put processes in order and collect taxes in a seamless manner, BBMP has the potential to raise Rs 5,000 crore of property tax. We have an inflated budget of Rs 10,000 crore with only Rs 3,000 crore income," said former Tax and Finance Standing Committee Chairman and Corporator of Shankara Matta Shivaraju.

Meanwhile, Shilpa Abhilash who served as the Corporator of New Thippasandra said that the fund disbursement to corporators is not proportionate.

"Some get more funds, but the first time Corporators need to fight for grants. All Corporators need to be allocated funds equally, only then the overall development of the city is possible," she said. Former Gangambike Mallikarjun who served from 2018 to 2019 spoke on the garbage issue in Bengaluru. Calling for a systematic approach to tackle garbage, she said the major challenge she faced is to get citizens to comply with the norms on effective garbage management.

She also spoke on the importance of strengthening ward committees and said in her ward, she identified local leaders in the neighbourhood who became members of the ward committee.

"Public Works need to be streamlined under a central system. We need to consult experts so that the storm water drain issues can be resolved. Houses are built in low lying areas and hence water fills in the houses but everyone blames BBMP. This is wrong," said Mohan Kumar D, Former Public Works Standing Committee Chairman.

Commenting on the programme, Janaagraha CEO Srikanth Viswanathan said, "Councillors across party lines are focused on two key aspects, one, need for greater powers and funds for BBMP Councillors and two, urgent need for BBMP administration to raise its own revenues through property tax and leveraging its real estate assets. We Bengalureans must strengthen the hands of our BBMP Councillors and work with them as one team to increase powers, functions and funds for BBMP."