ward committees

Two years ago on this day 8000 Bengalureans formed a human chain saying #SteelFlyoverBeda. The unprecedented public opposition forced the government to scrap the controversial 6.7 km ₹2000 crore steel flyover. CfB was born out of this citizen movement. To mark the second anniversary of citizens coming together, today CfB met the Mayor of Bengaluru and urged her to institute monthly ward committee meetings starting Nov 1st. Attached the letter submitted to the Mayor. Srinivas Alavilli, one of the founders of CfB said “I always look at #SteelFlyoverBeda as a tipping point - that infused fresh energy into citizen activism…

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 often wonder what happens to the Rs 750 crores of rupees spent by the corporation every year just for garbage management. We wonder why the potholes appear so quickly and the storm water drains became garbage canals while the annual city budget is upwards of Rs9000 crores. We often see big announcements of projects that will make a remarkable improvement to our city, the garbage situation and some amazing technology to 'quick fix' the potholes etc etc. but most of these do not seem to translate to the city we experience every day. Our city government, aka Corporation,  BBMP,…

With the recent High Court order on April 24th that asked the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to constitute ward committees within a month, the decades-long efforts by the State Government and the BBMP to stall their constitution have come to an end. The 74th Constitutional Amendment (CA) or Nagarapalika Act was passed in 1992, exactly 25 years ago, to give “Power to the People” and bring in decentralisation, transparency, accountability and people’s participation in urban local bodies (ULBs). The State’s conformity legislation to implement the 74th CA was passed in 1994 through an amendment to the KMC Act. Formation…

There is hope; be a part of the change, to improve your neighbourhood. Pic: Shree D N BBMP elections were held in 2015. It’s been two years since then, and it feels like a long time ago. Perhaps you may have even forgotten who you voted for. It may also feel like your corporator has forgotten you. But the fact is, we still have three years to go for the next BBMP election, and the game is far from over - in fact it has only begun now! BBMP is responsible for many of the things that affect your daily…

Panel discussion organised by CIVIC. Pic: Shree D N If what Minister for Urban Development, Karnataka, Vinay Kumar Sorake promised in a panel discussion held on July 11, 2014 materialises into concrete action, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) corporators cannot continue to rule the roost. Citizens will get more power and say in local matters, in the form of ward committees and area sabhas. The Minister promised to amend the section 13 of Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, to remove veto power over ward committees given to corporators. He also said he would look into amending the section to remove the…

As an immediate remedy for daily wet waste generated in Bengaluru, Additional Chief Secretary of Urban Department of Karnataka (UDD) D Satya Murty submitted to the High Court of Karnataka (HC) on Thursday, June 26, 2014, that portable processing units with the capacity of 50 tonnes will soon be installed in 15 to 20 wards. However, the bench comprising Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice N Kumar observed that processing units in 15 to 20 wards will not be sufficient when Bangalore has 198 wards. Murty submitted to the court that the government is keen on solving the garbage problem…

With the expected implementation of new Ward Committee Bye-laws/Rules drafted by the BBMP, the citizens can now question the ward committees on litter or garbage in their ward. The best part is, they can even move court if the complaints to the ward committee or the corporator do not solve the problem. Councillors had debated on whether BBMP should form Bengaluru-level ‘Bye-laws’ or state-level ‘Rules’, for ward committees. File Pic. The draft of the Byelaws/Rules for Ward Committees has been sent to the state government for approval. The final push for the formation of ward committees had come as a…

"The High Court order questions our credibility and our commitment to resolve issues in the city” -- so said Padmanabha Reddy, corporator of Ward 29 (Kacharakanahalli) at the special session of the BBMP Council on January 15th.  The agenda of the special session was to discuss the court directive ordering the government to form ward committees, and present the nominations to the ward committee to the Mayor. Though Reddy started his speech by offering full support to the formation of the ward committees, he ended up questioning, “10 members per ward will make it 1980 ward committee members -- how…

Instead of letting corporators and garbage contractors decide on the garbage problem, public can get directly involved now. High Court has directed that each ward in the city should form a ward committee, which will include 10 residents of the ward and will be headed by the local corporator. The committees are supposed to be functioning by January 21st; you can approach your corporator and suggest that you or any competent person you know, be included in the committee. BBMP is holding a Council meeting on 15th, during which corporators will submit their nominations.The interim order came in a PIL…