A road dug up for construction work outside a mall in Bangalore
Bangalore's civic body is almost a pauper. The ledger balance of outstanding payments is spilling into more than Rs 5,000 crore and the effect of this alarming figure is seen on the ground. Beaten roads, unkempt parks, unclean lakes - zero maintenance of what is, ironically, the IT city of the country.
A case in point being the Magrath Road, near the arterial MG Road, home to glitzy malls, where commercial spaces are described by users as a road to hell.
"We face this hell each morning and evening. What are the authorities doing?" said Sushma, a bank manager.
A park, near HOSMAT Hospital in central Bangalore, is now a distant cry from what it was. Weeds have taken over, fences have become taller, making this little space out of bounds for Bangalore.
"There are a lot of potholes on the roads, the footpaths are broken, there is debris on the sides of roads in many areas... nobody cares," says Mohandas Pai, a member of the Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC).
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city's civic body, admits maintenance has taken a hit. Of the Rs 5,000 crore as outstanding dues, some have been pending since September 2013. Of that, Rs 1,800 crore is to be paid to garbage contractors, while Rs 3,500 crore is in the form of loans from private banks. BBMP's annual income is mainly through property tax, levied from citizens, which translates into Rs 2,600 crore annually. Despite the outstanding dues, authorities claim they have not defaulted on a single payment to banks. BBMP employees, too, receive salaries on time. The only ones who seem to be suffering are Bangaloreans.
But the agency claims it has few plans to in place to salvage its tottering finances.
"Betterment tax has been pending for the last 3.5 years... Council has passed a resolution for approving it. Two, government will shortly clear the 'Akrama Sakrama' scheme that will fetch some money," says Lakshminarayana, Commissioner, BBMP.
The charge of urban development falls directly under Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, prompting tax payers ask to wonder if the buck should finally stop at his office for each pothole?