Devoid of any semblance of expertise in project
planning and implementation, the Palike fumbled ingloriously year after
year. Result: The city today lies in a shambles, its citizens trapped in
a maze of poorly designed, poorly consulted flyovers and roads, their
trust in the severely cash-strapped corporation’s capabilities at an
all-time low.

Ironical it may sound, but reformists seek a
turning back of the clock to get the BBMP back on track. And that would
mean trimming the Palike’s size to more manageable limits. Seasoned
urban planners are unanimous in their assertion that the corporation’s
woes started with its 2007 expansion.

“The resources required to
manage such a vast area have come down although the revenue generation
potential increased,” explains former chief secretary and Centre for
Sustainable Development chairman, A Ravindra. 

Beyond property
tax and advertisement revenue, the Palike could not expand the base.
“The resource base of BBMP or any other municipal body is very narrow.”

But
whatever the resources, the Palike has been guilty of gross financial
mismanagement. As urban expert, V Ravichandar recalls, “We had a
fund-based accounting system that allowed for all expenses and revenue
items to be tracked at the lowest level of occurrence (eg. changing a
light bulb in 4th block, Jayanagar or ad earnings from a hoarding in the
same block) but this was allowed to lapse; there were quarterly reports
to citizen groups that have been discontinued. So opaqueness wins,
transparency loses.” Budgets, he notes, are another work of fiction.
“Fool folks with promises of crores of spend while the reality was
crores spent in salaries and servicing debt burdens.” 

Downsizing Palike

Bifurcating
or even trifurcating the Palike is now high on the reformists’ agenda.
Urban experts are convinced that the merger of 100 wards of the
erstwhile Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) with seven City Municipal
Councils (CMCs), one Town Municipal Council (TMC) and 111 villages to
create the larger BBMP was a mistake. The smaller municipal bodies could
have remained as separate entities, of course with a robust
professional intervention to ensure quality administration.

Tasked
with managing the city’s critical civic infrastructure, the Palike
cannot afford to remain disconnected from other related agencies.
Para-statal city bodies such as the Bangalore Electricity Company
Limited (BESCOM), Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), the
city traffic police have a multitude of urban management functions.

 Strangely,
BBMP is the only agency answerable to the public through its elected
representatives, even if many roles are outside its purview.

It
is estimated that the Palike handles only about 40 per cent of the
city’s annual expenditure on civic services and infrastructure. Besides,
the BBMP’s share of the total personnel engaged in civic works is not
even 15 per cent. 

One solution, as Ravindra suggests, could be
bringing all the basic services such as water and power supply under one
umbrella. For instance, the task of supplying drinking water and
managing the drainage and sewage could be the Palike’s, while BWSSB
could focus on the larger Cauvery network. BBMP cannot be looked at in
isolation. However, until such an umbrella setup takes shape to boost
greater accountability, an immediate answer could be a far better
inter-agency coordination mechanism.

But there is a
counter-argument. Specific agencies are specialised in a particular
utility, having evolved after years of funding and infrastructure
creation. Specialised people can do the work better. This contention
demands that the agencies continue with their functions, although their
efficiencies could be vastly improved. As things stand, the functions
are hardly differentiated in a scientific manner. BBMP, for instance,
has to build the stormwater drains, while underground drainage is
BWSSB’s work!

Tackling corruption

For Bangaloreans reeling
under an inefficient civic administration, the litany of scams is a
constant reminder of the reeking corruption. Is there a way out? There
can be, if the elected representatives are given real responsibility.
“Today, they are not held responsible. The corporators only ask
questions. We have to go through the process of getting better people to
stand for elections. If you really create a good city government with
adequate powers and autonomy, things will evolve,” observes Ravindra. 

So,
the thrust is on a strong city governance structure. This, as many
urban planners and governance experts emphasise, calls for a directly
elected mayor. The term could be four or five years. But the mayor
should be a strong political executive with enough powers.

He /
she could have his / her own team in the lines of the State Cabinet.
Each team member could be in-charge of a particular civic department.
Together with improved resource mobilisation, professional inputs and
better planning, the city’s administration could get a hyper-boost.

Yet,
this much talked-about proposal has remained in the drawing room. Wary
of losing their powers over such a large revenue-generating city as
Bangalore, the political heads are apparently going slow. “The State
government has to take its hands off BBMP. The chief minister cannot be
expected to ensure that there are no potholes. He has larger State
issues to be concerned about. The current practice where the Palike has
to run to the Urban Development Department or the City in-charge
minister for every small thing, has to change,” feels an urban
architect, who has worked closely with the Palike.

Powerful Mayor

In
several international cities, the Mayor has become powerful enough to
eventually stand for presidential elections. In New York City, for
instance, the Mayor was at the centre of spearheading the relief
operations post 9/11. “Sadly, here they don’t want the mayor to become
politically powerful. The BBMP mayor is just a titular head with no real
powers, and a short term of one year. This should change,” notes
another urban planner.

This proposal for a strong city governing
body finds an echo even in a letter sent last week to Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah by the Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC). Among
10 points suggested for the city’s development, the panel has sought a
dedicated secretariat exclusively for Bangalore. This should be
different from UDD. The rationale: The challenges of the city should not
be seen as an elitist endeavour but as a pillar of inclusive growth and
an economic imperative to augment the state’s finances, as explained by
TV Mohandas Pai of B.PAC.

Either through a directly elected
mayor or a dedicated secretariat or department, Bangalore cries for a
more streamlined approach to governance, feels Ravichandar.

There
is a need to look beyond UDD, which has a minimal role now. As things
stand, the Chief Minister is reported to have forwarded the secretariat
proposal to city incharge and transport minister, Ramalinga Reddy for
followup action. 

Once the governance setup is ready, the city
will require a big infusion of funds since it is the State’s growth
engine. Independent estimates show that all the civic agencies in the
city put together spend only about Rs. 10,000 crore per annum. A big
chunk of the funds is spent on daily expenditures and not asset
creation.