Plan to reorganise B'lore municipalities only on paper

To manage phenomenal growth and improve Bangalore's infrastructure, the Karnataka government last year proposed a merger of seven municipalities around the city into the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC).

However, no headway has been made due to lack of clarity while the city continues to grow and additional facilities are created in a haphazard manner.

The government is literally groping in the dark owing to political opposition to the merger (elections to the BCC council are due in November). Though the erstwhile Congress-JD(S) government had drafted a bill on the merger, the present JD(S)-BJP government does not seem to attach much importance to the issue.

This is despite the National Urban Renewal Mission's call for coordinated planning across municipalities in large urban conglomerates so that urban problems can be addressed with a common perspective.

"The merger proposal has not drawn much attention from this government. So far, not even a meeting has been held to discuss the subject. Progress on this front will not be possible without political support," urban development secretariat officials stated.

Former commissioner of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Jayakar Jerome points out that the government is running short of time.

"The growth outside BCC limits is exploding beyond control. These municipalities lack technical expertise and administrative skills to handle the pace of development. An integrated entity is necessary to oversee the city's growth," he contends.

The erstwhile Congress-JD(S) government first came up with the idea of merging the seven municipalities into BCC. Thereafter it altered the plan and announced the merger of the seven municipalities into a new Greater Bangalore City Corporation (outside the BCC's purview).

After the JD(S)-BJP combine came to power, the plan was altered further. It proposed formation of three independent city corporations out of the total area covered by BCC and the seven municipalities.

According to this latest preliminary concept plan, the city will be divided into three corporations after the merger "� Greater Bangalore Corporation, Bangalore North Corporation and Bangalore South Corporation.

While the Greater Bangalore Corporation would have 142 wards, the Bangalore South and North Corporations would have 60 wards each. If this proposal transforms into action, then the city's municipal area would be about 500 square kilometres.

But urban reform experts argue that the government is flawed in its approach.

Says Feedback Consulting CEO V Ravichandar, who was on the erstwhile Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF): "Though there is a case for grouping the municipalities into a single politico-administrative entity for better services provisioning, I have reservations about merging them with the BCC, which is yet to 'digest' its 27 additional wards. Once they are brought under a single entity, holistic planning, including revenue generation, can be planned. However, finding the necessary resources will be a challenge."

The fact remains that BCC has not been able to service its present jurisdiction (225 square km) covering 100 wards. A similar exercise (merger) carried out a decade ago has not yielded the desired results. In 1995, 27 new wards were brought under the BCC limits. Even after 11 years, there is no visible development in these areas.

These areas were provided with Cauvery water and underground drainage facilities only a year ago. Though a major chunk of the money has been earmarked in the BCC budget every year towards the development of these wards, the works remain only on paper.

According to Ramesh Ramanathan, founder of Janaagraha, an organisation promoting participatory democracy, the best way forward is to set up the Bangalore Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC) as envisaged under the 74th Constitutional Amendment, to coordinate various entities.

"Merging the municipalities into a single body will not solve problems. Decentralisation is the only option. Bangalore does not have 1,000 problems. But 100 problems are repeated over 1,000 times. We need a BMPC that can provide a rigorous framework for the city's development," he states.

He contends that the municipalities have tremendous scope for revenue generation.

"The IT sector growth is happening in these municipalities. If BMPC, consisting of political, administrative, technical and civil society representatives, can provide the right direction to the municipalities, growth can be streamlined," Ramanathan notes.