Bengaluru
The BBMP presented its budget, in the absence of an elected council, for the third consecutive year, on Thursday. Among other proposals, the budget also focused on encouraging decentraisation, and said that the newly established 243 wards will be sub-divided for better administration.
For easy administration in accordance with the BBMP Act 2020, the budget proposed further decentralisation – 3 to 4 wards forming a sub-division, a few divisions forming a division and a few divisions comprising a zone. It also said that each zone will have a zonal committee which will be empowered to undertake works in its jurisdiction.
Experts say that while the budget talks of decentralisation, elections have not been held to the BBMP Council for three years, and this prevents the BBMP from providing true decentralisation, which is a violation of the Constitution.
The term of the BBMP ended in September, 2020 and the last BBMP polls were held in November 2015. The Assembly elections in Karnataka are slated to be held in 2023. Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress has been accusing the government of delaying the BBMP elections.
Kathyayini Chamaraj, activist and Executive trustee of CIVIC, said that while the Budget speaks about decentralisation in glowing terms, the BBMP Act 2020 has destroyed all semblance of decentralisation by constituting an Assembly-level Committee to be chaired by the MLA, institutionalising the interference of MLAs in the local government functioning.
“Further, they have made the Ward Committee, a citizens’ participatory platform to actualise government of the people, by the people and for the people, a toothless recommendatory body, killing participatory democracy. We also need an exclusive Ward Committee Secretary like in the Grama Panchayats,” Chamaraj pointed out.
“Understanding the humongous task and difficulty in managing the administration of 243 wards, BBMP has emphasised on decentralisation in accordance with BBMP Act 2020. It is proposed to have sub divisions with 3 to 4 wards, a division with 2 to 3 sub divisions and a few divisions making up one zone,” the budget document read.
It further said that each zone will have a Zonal Committee and the officer in charge of the Zonal Committee will be empowered to undertake the works in respect of the wards falling under its jurisdiction. The sanction of work and supervision will be done by them. In the true spirit of democratic processes, devolution of powers for hassle free and speedy completion of work is being proposed, it added.
Civic activist and convener of Citizens’ Agenda for Bengaluru, Sandeep Anirudhan, said, “While the Budget Speech talks of decentralisation, there are glaring gaps. Firstly, the 74th Amendment directs for unification of all service agencies at city level, decentralisation and autonomy of the BBMP from the state itself. However, this is yet to happen.”
“Elections have not been held to the BBMP Council for three years, and the state politicians are reluctant to give BBMP true decentralisation. This is a violation of the constitution itself. While there is some progress in ward committee meetings, meetings are yet to be streamlined or to be held regularly, nor have area sabhas been constituted nor are their rules issued. Though it is claimed that ward offices have been established as per new delimitation, this does not reflect on ground,” Anirudhan said.
“The ward delimitation exercise is also very shoddy and erratic, and the random number of 243 wards prescribed in the BBMP Act has further limited a scientific and logical ward committee delimitation,” Anirudhan added.