BBMP budget meet: Call for raising revenue, speeding up city development

Bengaluru: Ahead of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget 2022-23, a meeting was held with city MLAs, MLCs, MPs and ministers on Thursday. BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta and Administrator Rakesh Singh sought suggestions and opinions on the budget.

"It is the responsibility of the BBMP to focus on the development of the city and provide the necessary infrastructure to the citizens. We request for the valuable suggestions and opinions from the honourable ministers, MPs and MLAs on the current budget needs in keeping with the revenue," said Rakesh Singh.

Speaking on the occasion, Gaurav Gupta said, "Property tax collection has been given high priority in order to increase the source of income. The work on installing LED streetlights in the city is being accelerated." He added that adequate maintenance will be done.

The key points discussed at the meeting were allocation of Rs 2 - Rs 3 crore for each ward so that civic issues can be resolve easily; consolidation of resources by bifurcating A khata from B Khata; Increase the income base by bringing about 5 lakh houses under property tax net.

The meeting also emphasised the need for expediting the process of identifying unauthorized buildings and bringing them under the property tax regime. The tax collected under the Self-Assessment Scheme should be checked to match with the actual status. It also discussed allocation of grants to Onti Mane (housing scheme under which Rs 5 lakh financial assistance is given to SC, ST, BC and minorities), maintenance of streetlights, effective garbage management by installing GPS on compactors and auto tippers and collection of arrears from policy lease assets.

Officials and public representatives called for maintenance of rajakaaluve, parks and gyms in gardens, installation of children's toys, and ensuring proper security.

It decided to give priority to other programs such as distribution of laptops to the poorest of the poor, roads in 110 villages, building and maintenance of sidewalks/footpaths. It also highlighted the need for properly maintaining lakes in the city. Among other things discussed in the meeting were cutting of dead trees and dried branches, maintaining and installing of CC cameras and completion of all development works taken up in several areas of the city.

Ministers K Gopalaiah and Munirathna, MP PC Mohan, MLAs Suresh Kumar, Raghu, NA Harris, R Manjunath, KJ George, Satish Reddy, Bhairati Suresh, Ravi Subramanya, Soumya Reddy, Rizwan Harshad and MLCs P R Ramesh, UB Venkatesh, A Deve Gowda, all the Special Commissioners of BBMP and others were present in the meeting.