The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) expects to mobilise ₹1,100 crore from the long-promised regularisation of B khata to A khata, through alienation charges and betterment fee for the same.
Chief Civic Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath said the BBMP was waiting for the State Assembly to pass two amendments to the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964, and Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961, to empower the civic body to go ahead with the regularisation process. “We had expected these amendments to come through in the recently concluded session, but that did not happen. We hope these amendments will be passed in the coming session and we will begin the process,” he said.
Mr. Giri Nath said the regularisation of B khata to A khata would only regularise the site and not the building on it. “We have powers to regularise some deviations from the building bylaws. But if it is beyond that limit, we have no powers to regularise it,” he said.
A file photo of Indira Canteen in Bengaluru.
Dinner service being discontinued at many Indira Canteens
Mr. Giri Nath said that several Indira Canteens were suffering from lack of patronage, especially during night-time, and many of them had stopped serving dinner. This comes amid Opposition Congress, whose flagship programme the canteens were, accusing the ruling BJP of sabotaging the pro-poor initiative.
“We have already shut down operations of nine mobile canteens due to lack of patronage. The contractors running the canteens have reported a fall in patronage during dinner time. Since the contract specifies them to provide at least 500 meals and there is no meaning in serving less than 50 people in many places, they have stopped offering dinner. Adamya Chetana has stopped serving dinner at 30 to 35 canteens,” he said. The Budget earmarks ₹50 crore for the canteens this year.
Secretary-level officer to be Bengaluru Health Commissioner
A Secretary-level officer will be appointed as Bengaluru Health Commissioner, who will head the new Bengaluru Health System (BHS), which for the first time will bring primary health centres, primary referral hospitals of the civic body, key government hospitals, and premier institutions in the city under one command. The Commissioner will report to the respective departments on matters relating to respective hospitals.
“BHS shall ensure medical care to all patients through call centres, help desks, free enrollment, and free treatment. It will also follow up on medical care by maintaining detailed medical records of all such patients,” the civic Budget said, earmarking ₹2 crore for starting the BHS unit.
Uniform grant for outer zone wards and core city wards; proposal draws ire
Discontinuing the practice of providing additional grants to wards in outer zones, the civic body this year provided a ₹2 crore discretionary grant for all 243 wards in the city, drawing the ire of many from the outer zones. Outer wards were given ₹3 crore and core city wards ₹2 crore over the past few years, to help bridge the lag in infrastructure in the outer zone wards.
“Earlier, there was no uniformity in ward sizes, but now all the 243 wards roughly have the same population. Most of the civic body’s infrastructure spending is anyways in the outer zones. So, we have shifted to uniform discretionary funding,” Mr. Giri Nath said.
However, many in the outer zones have protested, arguing that the chasm between the developmental needs of the core city wards and the outer zone wards was so wide that providing uniform grants would be a travesty of justice. “This is why we have been demanding a separate corporation so that we can develop our areas with taxes we pay. For instance, we pay the highest taxes in the city, but have been fighting hard to get infrastructure developed in the area,” said Jagadish Reddy of Varthur Rising.
Citizen-friendly initiatives in the offing
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike on Thursday announced various citizen-friendly initiatives to streamline the system, including ‘Integrated Financial Management System’ (IFMS) to facilitate all payments.
By the end of 2022–23, the BBMP hopes to bring all incomes and receipts as well as all interoffice transfers within the IFMS.
The BBMP is also introducing the e-Asthi system to record purchase deed registration. It has been implemented on a pilot basis in East Zone of the BBMP. “Having removed the deficiencies in the existing software, e-Asthi-2 will be implemented in 2023-24 in East, West, and South zones of the BBMP. It is proposed to implement the new software across the entire BBMP jurisdiction based on the consistency and success of this improvised version,” BBMP Special Commissioner for Finance, Jayaram Raipura said in his Budget speech.
Meanwhile, the town planning approval fee is likely to be increased and the civic body is setting a target of ₹658 crore from it in 2023–24. No-objection certificates are being obtained from several departments while giving permission for the construction of buildings in the Town Planning Department of the BBMP. “This system will be improved in 2023–24 by obtaining online NOCs from all departments concerned, such as Bescom, BMRCL, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, and Fire Department. This strategic intervention will make the building construction approval process easy, transparent, and time bound,” Mr. Raipura added.
A file photo of the flooded Rainbow Drive Layout on Sarjapur Road in Bengaluru.
Apart from ORR flooding, no major incident last year: BBMP
Despite the fact that various parts of the city were flooded during heavy rain last year, creating havoc, the BBMP in its Budget claimed that there had not been any other major flood incident.
“Apart from the incident of Savalakere lake overflowing and flooding the Outer Ring Road in East Bengaluru, there has not been any other major flood incident. This is a testimony to the efficiency of storm-water drainage works done by the BBMP. In spite of record rainfall of 1,958 mm in Bengaluru, the BBMP managed to prevent any other major flooding incident. The first phase of K-100 stretch of rajakaluves has been successfully commissioned,” Mr. Raipura said.
“A sum of ₹72.90 crore has already been earmarked for maintenance of tertiary drains at ₹30 lakh per ward. A sum of ₹55 crore is reserved in 2023–24 for repairs and maintenance of primary and secondary drains with an expectation to prevent any flooding or any untoward incident in future. Comprehensive development of 12 lakes will be taken up in 2023–24 at a cost of ₹35 crore,” he added.
Three new tourism circuits announced
The BBMP announced plans to develop three tourism circuits in 2023–24 at a cost of ₹180 crore.
The circuits will be created in Kempambudhi lake – Bull Temple Road vicinity, Sankey lake — Kadu Malleshwara Temple vicinity, and Halasuru lake – Someshwara Temple vicinity.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in his recent State Budget had announced a Bengaluru tourism circuit covering historical landmarks associated with Kempe Gowda, the founder of the city.
‘One Health Plan’ proposed
To prevent zoonotic diseases, the BBMP has proposed a ‘One Health Plan’. According to this, zoonotic diseases will be studied in addition to damage caused to human health by polluted environment. “A hi-tech laboratory and metropolitan monitoring centre will be established at a cost of ₹5 crore. Assistance will be obtained under the CSR programme for the construction and maintenance of this labarotary,” the Budget states.
Electric crematoriums for animals
The BBMP has proposed to set up two electric crematoriums at a cost of ₹5 crore for the cremation of dogs and other animals. The BBMP has earmarked ₹20 crore for an anti-rabies five-in-one vaccine during 2023-24 to control the menace of stray dogs in Bengaluru, while the BBMP aims to double the number of spaying and neutering of stray dogs in 2023-24.
New collection and transport system for SWM
The BBMP announced a new collection and transportation system for solid waste management (SWM), with 4,500 new auto-tippers with separate compartments for wet waste and dry waste along with 500 new compactors in 2023-24.
“The collection and transportation system will be strengthened in a very systematic and scientific manner by adopting modern technology and information system. It is proposed to make each ward ‘self-sufficient’ or ‘Atmanirbhar’ in wet waste management under the ‘net-zero’ concept. Dry waste collection centres will be established in every ward. Similarly, wet waste compost processing centres will be set up in each wards,” the BBMP Special Commissioner for Finance said.
The BBMP has proposed to set up a waste-to-energy power plant in association with Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd. to process 600 tonnes of RDF per day. A 100-acre integrated solid waste management centre is also proposed on the outskirts of Bengaluru under the PPP mode. “Waste collection and transportation centres will be opened in each Assembly constituency to make SWM into an organised and scientific activity,” Mr. Raipura added.
More saplings
The BBMP has planned to increase the planting of saplings to 15 lakh every year from 2023-24. For this, three new hi-tech nurseries at Hebbal and Dasarahalli areas are proposed in addition to the existing five at a cost of ₹8 crore, while ₹40 crore has been earmarked for seedling, planting of saplings and tree pruning in 2023-24.
According to the BBMP Budget, 10 new parks were developed during 2022-23, increasing the total number of parks to 1,233. “A sum of ₹15 crore has been earmarked for the development of 15 new parks in 2023-24 while ₹80 crore has been earmarked for maintenance of existing parks,” the BBMP has said.
The existing sodium vapour lights are proposed to be replaced by LED fittings in a phased manner to reduce power consumption. “An amount of ₹ 17.25 crore has been earmarked for this expenditure in 2023-24 to reduce power consumption. Similarly, ‘Solar roof-top net metering’ will be taken up in 2023-24 on all buildings of the BBMP under the 15th Finance Commission grant.
Published - March 02, 2023 08:33 pm IST
