Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has urged Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) to shed its negative image by getting rid of middlemen and ensuring that no person who approaches it is treated unfairly. Shivakumar, who is also the minister in charge of Bengaluru, had recently launched a portal to seek suggestions from citizens on the steps to be taken to enhance the brand of the capital city by addressing various pressing issues. The minister’s suggestion to the BDA may be seen against this background. But the question is, can the BDA, which has lost credibility and the trust of the citizens due to rampant corruption, on the one hand, and has, on the other, become a millstone around Bengaluru’s neck due to its visible incompetence, resurrect itself and meet the purposes of the city and citizens?
The BDA’s vision, according to its website, is to transform Bengaluru into an ideal global destination with high-quality infrastructure and a better quality of life for its citizens. It aims to achieve this by ensuring sustainable and planned development using participatory and innovative approaches and ensuring effective monitoring and regulation of its working. It is easy to see that the BDA has failed to measure up to its goals, because it has not followed the professed methods, and it has certainly not been monitored nor regulated either from within or outside. It is also clear that it is in no position to introspect on any of these aspects and therefore to initiate change. The vision and mission and pious professions have all remained buzz words on paper. The authority is charged with facilitating urban development in the Bengaluru Metropolitan Area to ensure sustainable and orderly growth. But it has, over the years, deteriorated to such a level that it has not even been able to update the comprehensive master plan for the city since 2015. Thus, in effect, all the civic agencies tasked with different aspects of running the city and building its infrastructure for the future are doing so based on an outdated plan, thanks to the BDA’s singular failure. It has also failed to live up to its other important task of carving out layouts and distributing sites, as is evident from the controversies surrounding the Arkavathi, Kempe Gowda and Shivaram Karanth layouts, where the allottees have been put to untold hardship.
The BDA has clearly been mired in corruption, incompetence and controversies over the years and it has proved itself beyond redemption despite efforts to turn it around. Part of the reason is the political interference in its functioning, something that Shivakumar is not unaware of. Therefore, citizens are sceptical if the BDA can change for the better at all.