BENGALURU: Amidst BJP opposition, the joint committee report on Greater Bengaluru has been submitted to Assembly Speaker U T Khader by Shivanagar MLA Rizwan Arshad, who is the chairman of the committee.
The committee has made several key recommendations, including the formation of a maximum of seven city corporations instead of the BBMP. However, it has not been specified that seven corporations should be formed immediately.
Speaking after receiving the report, Speaker UT Khader said that after the Greater Bengaluru Bill was tabled in the Legislative Assembly in July and discussed in the House. “The Joint House Committee was formed to discuss the pros and cons and it has submitted a report now. The report will be presented in the next session”, he said.
Committee chairman Rizwan Arshad said that the committee had held discussions with experts and the public over the past five months. The report has been prepared based on the suggestions received during these discussions.
The key recommendations of the Greater Bengaluru committee report include:
- Formation of a maximum of 7 city corporations instead of BBMP. The committee said that the government should decide how many corporations should be created.
- There is no coordination between agencies including BMRCL and BWSSB, and another. Therefore, it has been suggested to form a Greater Bangalore Authority to make all these work in coordination.
- The Greater Bengaluru Authority should be formed with the Chief Minister as its chairman and the Bengaluru in-charge minister as its vice-chairman.
- Each corporation should have an internal audit system and a vigilance committee to prevent corruption.
- The mayor’s term should be 30 months, i.e. 2.5 years. Corporations should be divided according to income and population.
- Corporations should be divided based on population and revenue.
- The government should give less money to the divided corporations. The names of the new corporations should be based on the directions (North, East, West, South).
- The Greater Bengaluru Authority should hold a meeting every 3 months.
- New corporations should not include areas from other districts. The corporations should be formed based on the existing KMC Act.
- Gram panchayats that have been developed and merged with the city should be included in the new corporations.
- It is suggested that the executive committee should also meet every month.