Bengaluru, Aug. 31: The government hopes to bring in a law to safeguard the interests of the urban poor after the BBMP council elections are held, according to senior BJP leader and Member of Parliament Ananth Kumar. To this end, a comprehensive policy for the development of urban poor with special focus on youth, women and children will be drafted soon.

Participating in a consultation organised to take in suggestions from like-minded groups and public organisations on a comprehensive policy for the development of urban poor the government is working on, he said a mandatory 18 per cent fund allotment will be made in the budget for the poor and a social audit will be done on a regular basis to ensure that the money is utilised properly. Members of the Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure and Development Task Force (ABIDe) is drafting the comprehensive policy with the help of several city based groups acting as an umbrella organisation.

“We want to intervene in five important areas that play an important role in the development of the urban poor. The comprehensive policy to be announced by the state government will be restricted to people below poverty line,” Mr Kumar disclosed, adding that a working group will be formed to check on the mechanism used to implement the policy. The group will interact with the public to ensure that the policy serves the intended purpose. “Once the draft policy is ready it will be advertised for suggestions from the public, which will be analysed and introduced in the final policy, if found to be valid,” Mr Kumar added.

Organisations like CIVIC, APSA, and AVAS gave their suggestions to ABIDe on the policy, which is intended to give a better deal for the urban poor, women and children.