That the BBMP, the latest avatar of Bangalore’s municipal corporation, is the youngest embodiment may buy it some leeway for its repeated mistakes. What doesn’t is the heritage of a century-and-a-half that precedes it.
For, the path Bangalore’s municipal boards treaded from March 27, 1862 to this day have had several curves and blocks. But progress was never compromised.
After the enactment of Bangalore Municipal Regulation Act, 1871, the two boards - the Bangalore City Municipality and the Bangalore Civil and Military Station - saw a full time president governing the boards.
The boundaries of the Cantonment area were enlarged, and areas like Langford Town, Richmond Town and Cox Town, et al were added to the original six divisions.
The total built-up area of the City municipality was 665 acres, surrounded by a hedge and deep ditch. The administration got the ditch and the hedge cleared, besides widening roads and regularising irregular roads.
The board also opened up congested localities by demolishing unsanitary houses. The pit system of latrines was abolished.
But 1881, the end of Commissioner’s rule in the erstwhile Mysore State with administration restored to the Royal family, saw the separation of the boards again.
The incomes of the boards in that year were Rs 1,44,670 (Cantonment) and Rs 59,993 (City).
With Mysore’s ‘British Resident’ heading the administration and the Cantonment area being mainly inhabited by the British and the Anglo-Indian community, the differences in administration became very apparent, creating discomfort among the locals in the City area.
According to the Gazette, for the first time, in 1892, “the City Municipality was given the right of electing one-half of its councillors.
Thereafter, was enacted the appointment of honorary president.” But there was no adult franchise. Voting rights were restricted only to male property owners and even among them, only those who have paid property tax. And only in the Cantonment, women were allowed to vote.
According to the Central rule of 1883, both civil and military areas saw 18 members in all, but the right of electing the president was granted only in 1920. In 1896, a government official Srinivas Acharya was named the president and in 1913 the first non-government official K P Puttanna Chetty became the president.
By 1901, Balepet, Halasurupet, Manevarthepet, Nagarthapet, Lalbagh, Fort, Basavanagudi and Malleswaram became the first nine wards in the City area. By 1923, the process of nominating municipal Commissioners began.
There were 30 members in the Bangalore municipality by 1930, with 19 of them elected by taxpayers, 10 nominated by the government and another a representative of the finance board.
As the system was gaining some stability, Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, in 1933, sought administrative control over the Bangalore Cantonment area when Lord Wellington had visited Mysore, but his wish was granted only a few years before India’s independence, on June 6, 1944.
Three years and six months after this, on December 6, 1949, the Bangalore Cantonment board and the city boards were combined to form the Bangalore City Corporation, under the Bangalore City Corporation Act, 1949. R Subbanna became the first Mayor of the City, as named by the government.
One of the major, immediate challenges facing the Corporation that time was to find the required co-ordination and co-operation between the Cantonment and the City area.
Although elections were introduced in the City, there was only limited franchise. It was only in 1950 that the Bangalore Corporation had adult franchise, becoming the first Corporation in the country to have it. N Keshav Iyengar became the first elected Mayor of the City.
That decade saw many of the villages on the outskirts of Bangalore becoming part of the Corporation.The City Development Corporation’s new layouts also became part of the Bangalore Corporation––the City began developing beyond expectations and has grown into a metropolis with a population of almost one crore today.
Anecdotes from City history
* 1965: Citizen Forum (Poura Samithi) won 27 seats of the 63 seats and K M Naganna became the Mayor
* In 1966, as reported by DH in February 1966, the abolition of the free water allowance to Bangalore citizens led to a protest led by Naganna, turning the lawns of Vidhana Soudha into a vast ‘fasting ground’.
* March 22, 1966: The allowance was restored, although taxes and cess were proportionately raised.
* Dec 1966: For the first time since Independence, the government terminated the Corporation rule and appointed K Balasubramanyam as its nominee for 3 years.
* 1971: Corporation administration was restored and J Lingaiah became the Mayor
* 1975: Again, the government appointed N Lakshmanrao as its nominee