Bill For Greater Bengaluru Governance In Monsoon Session: Sources

The ambitious and controversial plan to restructure the civic administration of Karnataka capital Bengaluru is likely to be tabled in the state assembly in the monsoon session, sources said. The Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, 2024, aims to revamp the administration with a three-tier multiple-corporation set up -- a move that the state's Opposition BJP resists, seeing the existing set-up as their legacy.

The Bill aims to establish the Greater Bengaluru Authority for planning, coordinating and supervising the development of the Greater Bengaluru Area, which will cover around 1,400 square km.

It also plans to establish multiple City Corporations in the Greater Bengaluru Area for effective, participatory and responsive governance.  The three-tier system it would set up involves the creation of ward committees at the lowest rung. On the second rung will be a set of municipal corporations governed by the Greater Bengaluru Authority. The whole set-up will be chaired by the Chief Minister and the Bengaluru Development minister.

The GBA shall be responsible for the overall planning of Greater Bengaluru, coordinating the activities of multiple Municipal Corporations, administering major infrastructural projects that cut across multiple Municipal Corporations and ensuring the accountability of parastatal authorities in Bengaluru.

If passed, the bill would provide for the creation of up to 10 municipal corporations. It will also increase the number of wards in the city from the existing 225 to 400. The 225 wards were notified in September last year.

Each Municipal Corporation will have a Mayor-in-Council, consisting of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and 10 other members. The Mayor-in-Council, instead of the Commissioner, is vested with executive powers of the Corporation and shall be collectively responsible to the Corporation.

During the earlier tenure of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, a bill was introduced to trifurcate the civic body. The Bill was passed in the Assembly, but defeated in the Council.

In 2019, the BJP opted for a bureaucratic decentralisation under a single corporation.

But with no civic polls held in 4 years now amid disagreement over the multiple issues including delimitation and decentralisatioin of the civic body, a bunch of petitions are pending at the Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court.

The term of the elected council of BBMP expired in September 2020.

The local body earlier had 198 seats. In July 2022, the BJP notified 243 wards, which was opposed by the Congress. In 2023, the Karnataka High Court gave the Congress government a 12-week deadline to finish the delimitation process.

Decentralisation and multiple corporation proposals setting battle lines delayed the election process.