All About The BBMP Restructuring Committee in Bengaluru

Image Source: The Hindu

The BBMP Restructuring Committee has been granted a larger mandate to reimagine Bengaluru's governance and administration as the city continues to expand.

The previous Congress administration (between 2013 and 2018) had established the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Restructuring Committee, which the State government reconvened on June 12. For administrative convenience, the newly-elected Congress government desires to divide the BBMP into multiple corporations. 

The 2015 recommendation of the committee to divide BBMP into multiple corporations is still in effect. However, it was not implemented at the time because the courts ordered the State government to conduct municipal elections immediately and the BJP and the JD(S), who subsequently came to power, opposed the proposal.

Now that the Congress has regained power in Karnataka, the party is determined to reinstate the Restructuring Committee, which, in the party's view, is the "best solution" for addressing the city's governance deficit.  

Nonetheless, as Bengaluru continues to expand, the committee has been given a broader mandate to reimagine the city's governance and administration. Due to the unprecedented demographic and spatial growth of Bengaluru over the past two decades, the Committee will include not only the BBMP but also all related civic and infrastructure departments such as the Urban Development Department, the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), the Bangalore water supply and sewerage board (BWSSB), the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), and the Bengaluru Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA). 

The committee has also been tasked with assuring profound decentralisation at the ward level, with citizen participation, and appropriate centralisation at the apex levels, while adhering to the spirit of the 74th Amendment and the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) that was established. 

Why reorganisation?

Initially, the Expert Committee was formed to suggest how the extant BBMP could be subdivided into smaller municipal territories. According to the State, Bengaluru had become too large and unmanageable for a single corporation to manage. The merger of the former Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BMP) with seven City Municipal Councils (CMC), one Town Municipal Council (TMC), and 110 villages in 2007 had not produced the anticipated benefits. The BBMP-added villages lacked fundamental amenities such as underground sewerage, drainage, and piped water. With multiple siloed municipal agencies and a BBMP, the city lacked adequate governance, administration, and human resources. A Restructuring Committee appears to be the State's best option for gaining a comprehensive understanding of what ails the current system and civic agencies in meeting citizen expectations. 

What is the suggested three-tier governance architecture for administering Bangalore?

The Committee suggested a three-tiered structure for managing Bengaluru, with the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) at the topmost level, the Municipal Corporation (MC)/Mayor in Council at the second level, and the Ward at the third level. The proposed three-tier governance structure would prioritise the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) at the regional level, the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) as a Local Planning Authority (LPA), and the enhancement of ward committees at the municipal level. Citizens will have a voice and a forum to address municipal issues in their neighbourhood through the ward committee. Each constituency will have a committee with explicitly defined responsibilities. The divisions will be entrusted with the authority to take the necessary measures to address local problems.

Congress government is eager to divide BBMPThe restructuring committee proposed the devolution of powers to smaller governance entities with a credible leader at the Municipal Corporation level, while preserving the devolved powers at the lesser levels. 

District Committees 

According to the recommendations of the Committee's 2015 report, each Ward would have a 20-member Ward Committee, with half of the members elected proportionally based on the party vote share in municipal elections and the other half nominated from a broad spectrum of civil society. Each Ward would have a Secretary who would be the chief executive responsible for implementing the Ward Committee's decisions. Each Ward Committee must prepare a 5-year Vision Plan, an Annual Development Plan, and an Annual Budget. The Ward Committees must be consulted on any changes to the Master Plan's land use. Ward Committees would be authorised to execute, superintend, and audit the works of the Corporation in their respective wards, as well as retain a fixed portion of the taxes collected from the ward to fund projects determined by the Ward Committee.  It remains to be seen, however, whether the state government, particularly the MLAs who have a monopoly on the city, would consent to devolve so much power to the ward committees.

MPC stands for the Mayor-in-Council system for Municipal Corporations. 

The BBMP Restructuring Committee recommended that the current Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) be split into five corporations, with a total of 400 constituencies. It was proposed that each Municipal Corporation would have a Mayor-in-Council composed of the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, and ten other members. Instead of the Commissioner, the Mayor-in-Council is vested with executive powers of the Corporation and is collectively accountable to the Corporation. Each Municipal Corporation will have a Municipal Accounts Committee to examine the corporation's finances and expenditures.  

Municipal Corporations may also establish Subject Committees to review and oversee the Corporation's operations in areas like urban planning, public health, and waste management. The Municipal Corporation shall be divided into zones, with each zone having a Zonal Committee comprised of all councillors elected from constituencies within that Zone. The report suggests that the Zonal Committee can supervise the Corporation's activities in multiple divisions within the Zone.  

GBA - Greater Bengaluru Authority 

The BBMP Restructuring Committee recommended that the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), which will be the pan-city body to integrate the governance of multiple corporations and several parastatals, be led by the chief minister for the first ten years and then by a directly elected mayor for the city.