BBMP

On September 1st 2010, local daily newspapers reported that BBMP Commissioner H Siddaiah had issued a circular to zonal joint commissioners to fill all potholes in the city within a fortnight. Each ward was given Rs 1 lakh for this purpose. On September 15th, the deadline came. And went. But potholes continue to remain. In south Bangalore's Kengeri (Ward 159), Corporator R Anjanappa (BJP) says they have completed work only to an extent. "Rs 1 lakh is too little money for us to fill all potholes...there are still many potholes to be filled", he says. Suresh Devathraj, an engineer in…

Tuesday September 14th was Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) day in Bangalore. Drawn into severe scrutiny by citizens protesting the TDR scheme's use as compensation for roadwidening, the state government's Urban Development Department organised a workshop on the controversial scheme. Following that, in the evening Samaya TV, a Kannada 24x7 news channel, organised a live debate on the topic. (See inset box for a brief report on the debate). As was the concern of many citizen action groups, the government's day-long workshop turned out to be a mostly technical session on TDR's implementation. Bureaucrats from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat…

Of the 35 lakes in Mahadevpura assembly constituency in northeast Bengaluru, 23 have become dysfunctional, according to a report authored by urban ecologist Dr Harini Nagendra, Ramesh Sivaram (member of resident association federation of Bellandur) and Dr S Subramanya (Professor at University of Agricultural Sciences). The report classifies seven lakes as ‘extremely polluted', another seven as ‘heavily polluted, drying' and nine lakes as ‘completely dry'. Only 10 ten lakes are categorised as healthy while two are under restoration. Bengaluru-based Harini is also co-author of papers with US-based political scientist Elinor Ostrom, Nobel prize winner for Economics in 2009. Harini Nagendra,…

The construction of a subway at the busy KR Market has been delayed by almost two years now. Local officials in the BBMP, BWSSB and the contractors carrying out the work, are passing the buck, blaming one another. Currently, work on the site has been held up due to a massive sewage pipe that needs to be removed. The subway construction near KR Market started way back in September 2006. Pic: Prabhu Mallikarjunan The Rs 6 crores project started in September 2006 and was scheduled to be completed in January 2009. Seventeen months have passed since, without much progress. The…

Special grants, ward-wise for each corporator Ward 172 - Rs 100 lakhs. Ward 176 - Rs 100 lakhs. Ward 177 - Rs 200 lakhs. Ward 178 - Rs 300 lakhs. Ward project plans Allocation for works as mentioned in draft annual BBMP budget: Madiwala (Ward 172) Purchase of equipments to Madiwala Hospital - Rs 1 crore Construction of dhobi ghat at Madiwala Machideva quarters - Rs 1 crore Additional loops to Central Silk Board Flyover - Rs 25 lakh BTM Layout (Ward 176) Development of parks - Rs 3.9 crores (this includes allocation for parks in Ejipura and Koramangala too)…

More than a week after BBMP proposed Rs 8488 crores as the budget for 2010-11, the corporation on Thursday went a step ahead and announced an additional Rs 350 crores to the budget through revenue projections. Mayor S K Nataraj and Chairman of Finance and Taxation Committee Chairman P M Sadashiva, addressing the media after the BBMP budget was approved in council. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal. The Rs 350 crores is an increase in revenue projections through the following: a Rs 70 crore increase in betterment charges (earlier estimate was  Rs 120 crores), Rs 150 crores more of property tax (earlier…

Over a period of four days, BBMP corporators were given an opportunity to debate and discuss the draft budget that was presented before the council on August 30th. While for the most part the Congress and JD(S) maintained that the budget is "bogus", BJP corporators hailed it to be "bombaat". Unfortunately, what could have been a critical dissection and analysis of the proposed Rs 8488 crore budget, turned out to be, for the large part, like a regular monthly meeting, where ward woes were presented. Leader of the Opposition M Nagaraj makes a point on August 30th when the BBMP…

Roadwidening. Who thought that such a term would come into being and cause such a brouhaha here in Bengaluru. Anyways - the protests, the government and BBMP going back and forth on suspending roadwidening, TDR (Transfer of Development Rights) notices being slapped, red marks on the wall - all this has been talked about over and over. Now here's something new to swallow. Sources in the BBMP recently told Citizen Matters about 23 roads that are being widened. This is not part of the list of roads that are stuck in a High Court case. These are roads of newly-added…

G Manjunath Raju. Bangalore's city budget, presented by the BBMP at the city council session on August 30th raises more questions than answers. The steep revenue projections BBMP has cited are themselves a whole topic. Citizen Matters spoke to G Manjunath Raju, corporator of Kadu Malleswaram (Ward 65) and member of BBMP's Taxation and Finance committee that prepared the budget. Discussion on the budget at the council is scheduled for September 2nd. There is a several fold increase in revenues compared to last year. How are you planning to manage that? There are total 15 lakh properties in the city.…

The BBMP  has proposed an expenditure of Rs.8488 crores for Bengaluru in its maiden budget session today. The same figure for last year (2009-10) when the city administration was running without an elected council was Rs 3582.02 crores. P N Sadashiva (BJP), Chairperson of the Taxation and Finance Committee and corporator of the Sunkenahalli ward, presenting the BBMP budget on August 30. BBMP Commissioner H Siddaiah, Mayor S K Nataraj and Deputy Mayor N Dayananda share the dias. Pic: Navya P K. However, BBMP's opening balance for 2010-11 was a mere Rs 424.72 cr. The administration proposes bridge the gap…