BBMP

I have recently finished the ward level analysis of Bengaluru’s 2017-18 budget, with Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. The budget briefs will be available online this week, for all 198 BBMP notified wards in Bengaluru. I’m writing this to tell you how important the ward level budgeting is. The ward level analysis by Janaagraha informs people about the direct budget allocation for lakes, roads, parks, public toilets and other public services for each ward. Open access to a city’s budget offers significant benefits to its citizens by enabling them to: (i) know where their tax money is spent (ii)…

In the previous story of the series on Ejipura housing project for Economically Weaker Sections, critical issues in the project implementation and how the developer considers all those issues as trivial were covered. This story will tell you how the BBMP has goofed up with the concession agreement of the project and why it might lead to a conflict between the two parties. In 2012, soon after the BBMP and Maverick’s plan to build EWS quarters in Ejipura under public-private partnership (PPP) model gained focus, several individuals and organisations opposed the arrangement of using the land meant for EWS families…

There was once a time when two national highways ran through the heart of Bengaluru city. This is no longer the case since national highways have been renamed and restructured in recent years. Yet, recently, the nightlife hubs MG Road and Brigade Road were ordered to stop serving alcohol based on the Supreme Court order  banning alcohol service in establishments just off national highways across India. The Supreme Court mandated the ban of alcohol service from establishments within 500 meters of state and national highways. The ban was put into action on July 1st , halting alcohol service from over…

In the first and second part of the series we explained how the concept of PPP model for Ejipura EWS quarters evolved and the reasons for the delay in implementation. This part will explore the nitty-gritty of project plan sanction. Why did the BBMP give plan sanction only for half segment of the project but has refused to approve other half of the project that comprises commercial establishment to be shared between the City Corporation and Maverick Holdings? When on May 31st, 2017, the High Court passed an order directing Maverick Holdings - the project proponent of Ejipura EWS quarters…

In the previous story, Garuda Group Managing Director Uday B Garudachar shared his version of the story about Ejipura EWS quarters project. The second part of the series, brings out the chronology of events that happened in connection to the project and where it stands as on today. In January 2013, the world came crashing down for over 900 families that were living in the Ejipura EWS (Economically Weaker Section) quarters near Koramangala, when the BBMP along with the building giant Maverick Holdings began to evict the poor families, to make way for new EWS quarters. It has been over…

In January 2013, over 5,000- residents were evicted from the EWS quarters in Ejipura near Koramangala in South Bengaluru. The eviction was to facilitate BBMP’s new plan -- a developer, Maverick Holdings would construct new EWS quarters for the 1,512 families who were residing in the quarters. It has been five years since the eviction took place. In this series, Citizen Matters will bring to you a reality check on the developments in the project, what the evicted families are up to and what went wrong in implementation. In the first part, we hear from Uday B Garudachar, developer and Managing…

At certain places in the city, I've seen boards that say Gas Authority of India (GAIL) is providing piped cooking gas to residences, so digging is being done. But at many other places, wholesale digging of roads and lanes is going on without any explanation at all. On one small lane (40thA Cross, leading to 18th Main, Jayanagar 4th T Block), as I walked, I counted...yes...25 across-the-road cuts, with a trench having been dug along the length of the lane on one side, too. No boards,no explanations, no names of the agencies involved, no date of completion mentioned. The problem…

A few years ago, it was the purview of the neighbourhood RWA member (usually a retired old man) to raise civic complaints, from water pipe leaking to potholes. He would trudge down to the nearest ward office, and talk to the engineer responsible. He’d follow up and write letters to the MLA to escalate. But now, average citizens are more conscious and quick to reach out to BBMP to raise issues. If you are stuck with a dead animal in front of your house, you’d call the helpline or use the BBMP Sahaaya app to get it removed. A citizen…

Multiple groups are protesting the manner in which BBMP instituted ward committees in about 2/3rd of the wards - ignoring citizen volunteers and public interest groups, and taking only the input of the corporators. Such protests were bound to happen - and anyone who understands the history of urban failure will see clearly why. About 40 years after the Republic of India was founded, Parliament decided that the system of Central governments and State governments managing everything was ineffective, and therefore we needed to add three other pieces. To make this happen, they passed two laws - one for rural…

We invite citizens to join us in protesting against destruction of the spirit of democracy and citizen participation as envisaged by the Nagarapalika Act  or 74th Constitutional Amendment (CA). BBMP was ordered by the Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka (HC) during a hearing of a PIL petition on 24th April 2017 to form Ward Committees (WC) in all 198 wards within one month.  When the practice of councillors nominating the ward committee members was challenged in the Court at a subsequent hearing, the HC gave oral orders to BBMP that out of the ten members to be nominated to the ward committee, “two…