BBMP elections: Will Bengaluru get a better deal?

‘Right to the city’ denied

With the Supreme Court cracking the whip against state governments and ordering that all pending local body elections should be scheduled within two weeks, the state government has had to buckle down and put an end to its arbitrary and impudent procrastination of BBMP elections since September 2020 in violation of the Constitution. Several citizens’ groups under the banner of ‘Civil Society Forum’ have come up with their own manifesto to be presented to political parties before the BBMP election envisioning a better Bengaluru.

This delay in elections has happened by delaying the delimitation of wards and reservation of seats, a task that should be assigned to the State Election Commission but has been usurped by the State government. This power must be given back to the SEC to avoid future strictures by the SC for not holding elections on time.

BBMP is facing a myriad of crises and paradoxes. There is massive corruption in road contracts, as revealed by the Contractors’ Association itself, resulting in pothole deaths of several citizens. Large-scale encroachments of lakes, rajakaluves and buffer-zones are causing frequent flooding of houses, especially of the poor, while these same poor may be struggling for access to a regular supply of piped water or basic sanitation. High-rises mushroom amidst slums, often in violation of zoning and building bye-laws. High-end infrastructure for private cars is prioritised while the losses of the BMTC, carrying the largest number of commuters, are not covered.

Open garbage heaps, polluted, frothing and burning lakes, and poisoned air are the norm even as the city boasts of being the IT-BT capital, ‘start-up’ hub and the ‘silicon plateau’ of the world. Officials, even after they are hauled up for contempt, ignore Court orders on these issues with brazen impunity, and lack resulting in total lack of accountability. Why are these officials, who have allowed thousands of blatant violations of laws, not punished and instead ‘enquiry teams’ are set up to delay, whitewash or divert attention from their open misdoings?

The ‘Right to the City’ -- basic entitlements to housing, water and sanitation, health, education, employment, and social security -- are denied to those who actually build and serve the city; their homes are demolished or they are pushed to the periphery with their livelihoods destroyed.

Local self-government with transparency, accountability and people’s participation as envisaged in the 74th Constitutional Amendment for urban local bodies stands vitiated in Bengaluru with the state government and MLAs usurping the role of what is supposed to be a ‘local self-government’. An MLA-chaired committee at the Assembly Constituency-level has even been introduced into the new BBMP Act between the ward and zonal committees, in total violation of the 74th CA.

Participation of every voter in the planning and governance of his area has been denied by non-implementation of the provision for ‘Area Sabhas’ since 2011. The ward committees have been completely crippled now in the BBMP Act with their decisions being rendered ‘advisory’ in nature as there is no political will to share power with people.

BBMP will have to go beyond its current focus solely on roads, potholes, drains and garbage and fulfil the broader function assigned to local self-governments under the Nagarapalika Act of “planning for economic development and social justice”.

Soon after the election, the first desirable thing is for the Area Sabhas to be notified and the Ward Committees set up within a month. These bodies need to develop a ‘5-year Ward Vision Plan’ in a bottom-up, evidence-based participatory planning process, setting targets to achieve human development, social infrastructure and ecological sustainability goals -- in short, localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This will also provide a basis for judging the performance of the councillor at the end of his/her five-year term. An exclusive website for each ward, where its Ward Vison Plan would be uploaded, will help monitor progress and also make it easier to provide regular updates.

For localising the SDGs, it would be necessary to first of all devolve to the municipality the 3Fs -- funds, functions and functionaries -- for slum upgradation, running of all the PDS shops, anganwadis, elementary schools, primary health centres, vocational/skill training centres, and such others, many of which are currently controlled by line departments of the State government. These have been already devolved to the Panchayat Raj Institutions in rural areas.

The citizens’ participatory platforms for monitoring the functioning of these institutions, such as the vigilance committees of ration shops, balavikas samitis of anganwadis, SDMCs of schools and Arogya Raksha Samitis of PHCs among others, need to be strengthened. These committees already have the local councillor as either a member or chairperson. But most councillors do not utilise these roles fully to improve the services of these institutions which are so critical for the upliftment of the marginalised and to achieve SDGs. Many of these committees exist on paper only with ghost members and ghost minutes of meetings. Information on the members of these committees, the minutes of their meetings and actions taken needs to be uploaded on the exclusive website of each ward.

The website must also carry information on the funds flowing in to the ward through various government departments, and their usage, and not just on the BBMP’s work on roads, drains, etc. To facilitate this, the government recently accepted a recommendation for Treasury to assign a unique ID to each ward, which will be cited on every expenditure. This way, information on funds from various sources reaching the wards will be available on the Ward websites thereby enabling social auditing and increased accountability.

With fresh elections coming, this is an opportunity for all political parties to demonstrate their genuine commitment to building a better Bengaluru wedded to Constitutional values.

(The writer is an Executive Trustee of CIVIC-Bangalore)