In his first Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council meeting as mayor on Wednesday, B S Sathyanarayana, stressed on making Bangalore a cleaner and greener city.

Defending the initiative of cleaning KR Market with the help of college students, the Mayor said students who were involved in the cleaning drive are not child labourers. “They are all 18 years and above. After APS College students’ involvement, many colleges in Bangalore are coming forward to join  hands with the BBMP,” he said. He also said the BBMP will take up intensive cleaning every Saturday at the ward-level.

The Mayor also said Councillors, city MLAs along with District  Minister R Ramalinga Reddy will visit Salem on September 24 to study the waste generated by energy plants. He also said Chief Minister Siddaramiah has promised to extend all support to the BBMP. “The Chief Minister has asked us to give priority to lakes and roads,” he said.

Congress leader Nagaraju said the BBMP has taken many decisions on solid waste management but none of them have been implemented. “We have asked the state government to provide land at eight places. It is still on paper. We are not able to implement it as officials are not working,” he alleged. He also suggested floating tenders one at a time and set a deadline for implementation.

On planting saplings, Nagaraju suggested taking up 100 wards for the sapling drive.

Soon, you will have to pay parking fee in many of the city’s major roads. Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Wednesday approved the action plan for parking policy. The Palike also hopes to curb the existing parking mafia in Bangalore.

According to the action plan, the BBMP has divided the city roads as per parking demands; Premium parking (Package A),  Business Parking (Package B) and Ordinary parking (Package C) roads. Fee has been fixed accordingly. Two wheeler parking fee is Rs 15, Rs 10 and Rs 5 per hour for packages A, B and C respectively. Similarly for four wheelers, the fee is Rs 30, Rs 20 and Rs 15 per hour. Bicycles have been exempted from paying parking fee across the city.

The Palike intends to adopt technology in parking system. This includes Radio Frequency Identification at the entrance of parking lots which will give accurate time of parking, a mobile application for smart phones through which parking space availability can be checked and surveillance cameras to monitor movements. This entire system will be initiated at the core areas (three zones, South, East and West) and later extended across Bangalore city. BBMP will soon call a tender and it is expected to be implemented in the next three months.

Restart Frozen Works: Councillors

The councillors made another attempt to get the BBMP restart the works that were frozen after the recommendation of the then commissioner Siddaiah.

JD(S) floor leader R Prakash, said, “There is no clarity on frozen works. Some of the works that were started in my ward are incomplete.  It is an embarrassing situation for us,” he said. Meanwhile, Gurappanapalya Councillor Rizwan from the Congress, said despite the code being issued the work has not started.

Commissioner M Lakshminarayana said  Technical Vigilance Cell (TVCC) will check these works. “Once it is certified by the TVCC, we will check the financial status and then take up the work,” the Commissioner said.

It can be recalled that in May 2013, based on the TVCC report, the then commissioner Siddaiah ordered to stop 1,970 works worth Rs 522 crore.

Officials Warned

Sathyanarayana warned officials to release funds for silt and tractor contractors in the south zone. Being the councillor of Basavanagudi ward, Sathyanarayana in earlier meetings, raised the issue and urged officials concerned to release the funds.