The jurisdiction of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, which extends over 198 wards and 28 Assembly constituencies, has population of more than 1.1 cr. Because of this, providing services and facilities to citizens is becoming a daily struggle.

Due to reorganisation, in many cases one assembly constituency is distributed over more than one zone, and this has created difficulties in citizen and administration related tasks. Presently, many major infrastructure works are being implemented in the BBMP jurisdiction, and many more are in the pipeline.

In the present system, the concerned Joint Commissioners submit all files pertaining to zones for the approval of the Commissioner, through Special Commissioners and Additional Commissioners. Delay is common since all decisions are being taken in a centralised manner, and the Commissioner is under tremendous work pressure. Hence it has become essential to decentralise the BBMP administration in public interest.

To reduce the workload of the Commissioner and to increase the efficiency of BBMP, the government has decided to release the eight zones of BBMP from the purview of the Commissioner, and to place two zones each under BBMP’s Special Commissioners and Additional Commissioners. Under this system, the rights of the Commissioner to decide on all zonal proposals have been assigned to the Special and Additional Commissioners, to decentralise the administration.

Due to this arrangement, the issues pertaining to zones can be resolved at the level of the zones itself. This will increase efficiency, and reduce the time required for work. The eight zones of BBMP have been placed in pairs under four Special Commissioners and Additional Commissioners working presently in BBMP.

The reallocation of responsibilities for the Commissioner and four Special Commissioners and Additional Commissioners is as below.

Commissioner, BBMP

Commissioner, BBMP, will have the overall supervision responsibility, along with the responsibility of formulating policies and coordinating among departments. The Commissioner will also have the responsibility of overseeing the subjects and wings that have not been assigned to the Special/Additional Commissioners.Commissioner shall place all proposals before the standing committees and BBMP Council. He will also be the representative of BBMP at the government level with regards to all communications, meetings and committees.

Special Commissioners and Additional Commissioners

Along with the powers already delegated, the four Special Commissioners and Additional Commissioners will have the power under law to take decisions regarding all proposals in the two zones assigned to them. Also, limited to the two zones assigned, the complete financial power of the Commissioner has also been assigned to the Special Commissioners and Additional Commissioners in charge of zones, pertaining to subjects like Zonal engineering works, Solid Waste Management, Street lights, Zonal Projects, Housing, Town Planning (Zonal), maintenance of assets, Welfare, Education, Forest, Horticulture, Health etc. Also, the Special Commissioners and Additional Commissioners will have the complete responsibility of revenue collection, including property tax and other revenue matters as well as advertisement revenues.

Because of the decentralisation of powers as above, Solid Waste Management and Revenue Collection will be dealt at the level of zones, and the Commissioner can now concentrate on critical issues such as policy making, implementation of mega projects, development of infrastructure etc.These measures will help in overall improvement in administration of BBMP, increased efficiency and timely implementation of projects.

[This article is based on a press release from BBMP, and has been republished here with minimal edits]