Citizens to focus on improving footpaths, toilets and parks in this year's BBMP budget

Bengaluru: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Janaagraha jointly launched 'MyCityMyBudget – Nanna Nagara Nanna Budget, Citizen Participation in BBMP Budget 2022-23' campaign on Wednesday. Citizens of Bengaluru can submit budget proposals on footpaths, public toilets and parks at the budget bus or online.

Bengaluru is far more participatory when compared to other cities, said BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta after flagging off the campaign and a 'Budget Bus'. "BBMP ward committee meetings are being conducted regularly. BBMP had released Rs 60 lakh to each of the 198 ward committees for the first-time last year. Participatory budgeting initiatives such as MyCityMyBudget should become a nationwide movement. When citizens participate in budgets, they understand the processes as well as complexities. This will in turn help in prioritizing civic issues for solution, using the existing budget," Gupta explained.

"We invite citizens to submit their budget inputs online by visiting www.mycitymybudget.in or through the 'Budget Bus' which will visit all the wards in the coming days," he added.

"Year after year, BBMP invites citizens to participate in making our city budget. Very few cities in India do this. Janaagraha is proud to be a partner in this effort, ensuring voices from all sections are being heard and actionable inputs are provided to BBMP in time. More than 40 citizen groups come together to make this happen in their localities. Last year, in a historic move, BBMP entrusted ward committees with ₹60L budget to make local decisions. This opened up new frontiers of citizen participation in many wards, where citizens collaborated with BBMP to identify footpaths that needed to be fixed. This year, the focus will continue to be on footpaths, public toilets and parks. We hope to see a positive difference in quality of footpaths, toilets and parks this year", opined Srinivas Alavilli, Head, Civic Participation, Janaagraha, on this occasion.

Sapna Karim, Head, Civic Participation, Janaagraha, said "BBMP had made a pioneering start last year by allocating budgets for Ward Committees to utilize. A first in the country I am sure. It is heartening to note that the BBMP's commitment to continue participatory budgeting and strengthening Ward Committees by launching MyCityMyBudget for the 6th year. Citizens and community groups have been of great support, and clearly history is being written on local governance and citizen engagement in our city."

Members from five different wards (Varthuru, Banaswadi, Gottigere, Radhakrishna temple, Sanjaya Nagara) presented walkability reports from their ward and how they plan to use the Rs 20 lakh funds for footpath improvements to the Chief Commission on this occasion.

"People need good walkable footpaths. We have participated in the walkability survey and identified areas that are challenging for pedestrians to walk. We request BBMP to ensure Bengaluru becomes a safe place for citizens," said Geetha Gooty, Ward Committee member from Sanjay Nagar. "Varthuru is a huge ward, we need more funds allocated to ward committee to meet all our needs" Jagadish Reddy, a member, said. Another citizen, Lalitha said, "We need more focus on making our footpaths walkable and in ward committee, we are able to identify problem areas and find solutions locally." Kamlesh from Gottigere said "because of the ward committee funding, we are able to address some urgent repair works on our footpaths"

What will MyCityMyBudget focus on this year?

This year, the MyCityMyBudget campaign will focus on collecting budget inputs from citizens, with a special focus on parks, footpaths and public toilets. The budget bus will traverse across the city and collect inputs from people in different neighbourhoods of Bengaluru till 15 March. The citizens can also log in to http://mycitymybudget.in and provide their inputs online. Janaagraha will collate all the inputs received, analyse and provide the report to BBMP for incorporation in the upcoming city budget. This exercise by BBMP, has raised the expectations of people on increased allocation to the ward committees as compared to the previous year.

MyCityMyBudget

MyCityMyBudget is an annual participatory budgeting initiative, started by Janaagraha in collaboration with BBMP in 2015.

In its first year, the campaign was launched on a pilot basis in a few wards and received 6037 citizen inputs. The overwhelming response, resulted in MCMB becoming a city-wide campaign in 2016, under the leadership of the Mayor and Commissioner.

In 2017, BBMP budget included 12,468 MCMB proposals for works worth Rs 600 crore. The 2018-19 campaign witnessed an overwhelming response with 67,114 citizens submitting budget inputs. A formal MoU was signed between Janaagraha and BBMP in 2018.

The 2021-22 campaign focused on footpaths, public toilets and Yellow Spots aka Public Urination Spots. Over 42 civil society organisations, resident welfare associations and other community groups joined to make the campaign a success. The active participation by citizens prompted BBMP to allot ₹60 lakh to each of Bengaluru's 198 ward committees. In the year 2021, MyCityMyBudget was also launched in Managaluru and Vizag. The campaign is helping weave citizen participation into the fabric of local municipal budget-making.

This year, the campaign will focus on collecting budget inputs from citizens, with a special focus of parks, footpaths and public toilets.