Citizens submit BBMP budget proposal to Mayor

A group of citizens recently submitted a memorandum on the BBMP budget to Mayor S K Nataraj. Their proposals include increased citizen participation, solid waste management and 100% property tax collection.

The first BJP-led BBMP council is expected to present their maiden budget within the next fortnight. In this light, about 20 days ago, a group of like-minded citizens from across Bengaluru presented a memorandum to Mayor S K Nataraj, listing their proposals to include in the budget. This was in the presence of BBMP Commissioner H Siddaiah and Chairman of BBMP’s Finance Committee, P N Sadashiva.

The memorandum states that any BBMP budget should have a force or a thrust and that this year’s focus could be on making Bangalore ‘garbage-free’.

The following are some of the proposals in the memorandum.

Administration and citizen participation

  • Administrative restructuring of BBMP – Roles and responsibilities of departments to be defined and training for junior officers
  • Computerization of all BBMP offices, citizen help centers and Bangalore one centers in each ward
  • Adequate and skilled professionals should be hired as required in BBMP. It is difficult to function with the same staff strength of the erstwhile BMP as now BBMP is a much larger area with greater population. Private consultants/professionals can be utilized as required on a contract basis instead of utilizing engineers from the public works department. All the officers are to be made accountable
  • Envisage the involvement of registered resident welfare organisations (RWA) and civic organizations to monitor projects of the ward and conduct programs
  • Public consultation to be held before any major projects or new rules are implemented

Civic issues

  • Pilot project on solid waste management and garbage management in all 28 assembly constituencies. Enforcing citizens to separate wet and dry waste at source. This will generate income to BBMP
  • Replace double pole transformers with single pole ones, which will help save space and also ensure safety
  • Improvement of BBMP hospitals and schools and public-private partnership
  • A shelter for stray dogs on the outskirts of the city. Also encourage pet-loving citizens to adopt stray dogs.
  • Penalize those who stick posters and advertisements on trees, walls and electric poles
  • IT companies can be charged a city improvement cess (say 0.1 to 1.0 %) of their income. These companies can also be roped in for major programs under corporate social responsibility

Property tax

  • Continue prevailing SAS (Self Assessment for calculation of taxes) system slab for residential properties for another two years
  • Collect 100% property tax and maintain a property tax register (This may require more staff or it could be outsourced to agencies used by banks to recover loans). This will significantly increase the corporation’s revenue

Roads and transport

  • A practical sustainable solution to the storm water problem needs to be implemented as soon as possible and possibility of using the stone slab-covered drains for parking. Eg Double road
  • Adequate parking in upcoming Metro Stations
  • A motor vehicle tax can be charged every year or a vehicle tag (renewable every year) can be introduced for vehicle owners who own more than any two vehicles. Even as this comes under the purview of Regional Transport Offices (state government-run), the BBMP can discourage ownership of more than one vehicle and people’s reliance on private vehicles
  • a) Do not regularize those establishments that have converted basement parking for commercial purposes. Instead levy heavy taxation on them

        b) Parking cess to be levied on those establishments who have not provided parking facilities in their buildings

Comments:

  1. Rashmi Bala Gupta says:

    I am living in Trinity Acres & Woods and since last four months BBMP has dumped the construction material in back yard of our campus which is a playground for children. This was permitted for the beautification of lake and for that purpose access was also provided but I don’t know how long it will take as pipes, sand and other material had been dumped, the work is going so slow, pl. supervise it to get finished so the area gets cleaned as well as utilised by children.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

City Buzz: Diwali-led pollution spike in Delhi | Municipal green bonds issue… and more

Other news: AQI round-up in cities; Lancet report highlights risks to India from extreme heat; office rents surge to pre-pandemic levels.

Delhi world's 'most polluted' city post Diwali: Study Delhi's Diwali night blazed with colours and high-decibel firecrackers. The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) department received a record number of 318 distress or emergency calls of fire accidents, out of which 280 were alerts. According to Swiss firm IQ Air, the air quality index stood at over 345 shortly after dawn, in the "hazardous" category, with New Delhi at the top of a real-time global list as the world's most-polluted city. However, on November 1st, Environment Minister Gopal Rai expressed gratitude to Delhiites for "largely refraining from bursting firecrackers" on Deepavali, which helped…

Similar Story

How to save a neighbourhood park — Mumbaikars show the way with Patwardhan Park

A detailed account of how citizens got city authorities to reverse their decision to build an underground parking lot under a park in Bandra.

On September 22nd, the playground on the Raosaheb Patwardhan Park resembled a happy space where people gathered to enjoy and chat, children played football, a few played badminton or even hula hoops. A group jived over Zumba dance moves, while others danced to the live percussion music. The crowd had gathered to celebrate the playground being saved from the clutches of cemented development. A cake was cut to celebrate the occasion. Elected representatives from all the major political parties, Varsha Gaikwad, Mumbai head of the Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi from the Shiv Sena and even Ashish Shelar, the local Bharatiya Janata…