Bengaluru: The BBMP, which is all set to present its annual budget by the first week of March, is likely to focus on digitising all 20 lakh property records and replace the manual khata with e-certificates in the next financial year. Some inputs it received under the ‘Brand Bengaluru’ programme, such as increasing green cover, promotion of rainwater harvesting etc., will also be included in the budget, officials said.
This is the fourth budget to be presented by senior IAS officers in the absence of an elected council, whose term expired in September 2020. Engineers of different departments have been asked to suggest an action plan after consulting local legislators, it's learnt. "We had received close to 70,000 inputs under Brand Bengaluru. We will include them in the budget to the extent possible. The broader contours of the report will be submitted to the committee led by former chief secretary BS Patil," BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath said.
Roads, skydecks
New roads in the buffer zones of canals and skydecks to promote tourism are likely to get budgetary grants as the state government did not earmark funds for these projects in the past budget. The civic body may earmark Rs 400 crore for white-topping of roads as committed in the recently approved Rs 1,200-crore action plan.
A major highlight of the budget is likely to be the reforms being taken up by the BBMP’s revenue department ever since Munish Moudgil, a 1998-batch IAS officer, took charge as the special commissioner of the section.
Targeting property collection of over Rs 6,000 crore, digitising property records, building an internal tech team, upgrading Sahaaya application etc., are some initiatives in the works.
The BBMP also hopes to increase revenue by Rs 2,000 crore once the state government approves new advertisement and premium floor area ratio (FAR) policies.
Srikanth Narasimhan, founder of Bengaluru Navanirmana Party (BNP), said the way in which the BBMP is drafting the annual budget was wrong.
"Bengaluru has a road network of 14,000 km. Is it possible for an MLA to decide where the funds should be allocated? The government should instead make efforts to hold BBMP elections so that the councillors, ward committee as well as area sabha members can together contribute to the BBMP budget,” he said.
“Municipal administration is all about citizens deciding where the funds should be budgeted. The solution lies in holding council elections,” he added.