An online petition has been initiated by a Bengaluru activist demanding public consultation before the new Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Bill is tabled in the state Assembly yet again.
Among the highlights of the Bill are five-year fixed terms for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, unlike the current one-year term. But critics of the Bill say these are not enough to solve the existing problems such as lack of executive powers to the Mayor and also weak ward committees.
At the time of publishing this story, the petition demanding public consultation garnered 180 signatures.
In his petition, a city-based activist Sandeep Anirudhan, said, “Democracy is by the people, of the people and for the people. How is it ever going to fulfil its potential when 'by' and 'of' are missing in the mix?”
“The Local Self Governance in Bengaluru has long been broken because it simply does not exist. We have an urban local body, established by the BBMP under the outdated Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, which, by design, is colonial and centralisation of power in the state government, which reduces city and town governments to colonies (sic),” the petition added.
Incidentally, when the Karnataka government, through Revenue Minister R Ashoka, wanted to pass the Bill on Tuesday without any discussion, but he was opposed by his own fellow BJP MLAs. The MLAs demanded that they debate the contents of the BIll in detail before voting on the significant piece of legislation.
The Congress party, which had also opposed the unilateral passing of the Bill, had approached the Speaker to send the Bill to the Select Committee of both the Houses.
Speaking to TNM, Congress MLA from Shivajinagar ward Rizwan Arshad on Tuesday said that he was in favour of wide-ranging discussions and deliberations on the Bill with every stakeholder of the city.
With opposition within the government and the Opposition front, the Speaker sent the Bill to the joint select committee of the Karnataka legislature.
The Bill will be taken up for deliberation in the Assembly in the Monsoon (next) Session as Tuesday was the last day of the Budget Session.
Speaking to TNM, Sandeep added that there are issues that need further clarity as the Bill is not accessible to the public.
“Will the BBMP be truly restructured to meet the needs of Local Self Government? Will the democracy at the grassroots finally materialise? Will all the Parastatals be merged under the local government? Will Bengaluru finally have a local government devoid of state government's interference?” he said, explaining some of the concerns.