The Karnataka government on Tuesday tabled the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill which aims at establishing a maximum of 10 city corporations in order to decentralise municipal administration.
The bill moots the founding of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) in which the chief minister will be the ex-officio chairperson, the minister in charge of Bengaluru will be the vice-chairperson and the chief commissioner of the Greater Bengaluru Authority will be the ex-officio member secretary.
Karnataka ministers holding home, urban development, transport and energy portfolios and ministers from Bengaluru will be the ex-officio members.
Apart from them, the mayors of the city corporations, two members from each city corporation nominated by city corporation members will a part of the GBA as members Bangalore Development Authority commissioner, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board chairperson, and managing directors of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited, Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company, as well as Bengaluru police commissioner, chief executive officer of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority, chief town planner and engineer-in-chief of GBA, and the director of Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services will be the ex-officio members.
The commissioners of the city corporations will also be GBA ex-officio members but will not have voting rights.
All members of the House of the People and state Legislative Assembly whose constituencies lie within or substantially within the Greater Bengaluru Area shall be permanent invitees to the Greater Bengaluru Authority and may attend the meeting but will not have the right to vote, according to the bill.
The chief commissioner will be an officer not below the rank of additional chief secretary.
There will be city corporation authorities comprising of a mayor, commissioner, joint commissioners as well as standing committees, zonal committees, ward committees and 'area sabha'.
The mayor and the deputy mayor will hold office for a period of five years and it shall be co-terminus with the term of the office of the city corporation.
The BJP opposed the bill in the Karnataka Assembly saying it will divide Bengaluru further and its identity will be lost.
However, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is in charge of Bengaluru Development, dismissed the apprehensions of the opposition leaders as baseless.
He said he has only tabled the bill and it has not been passed yet. He added that he would take everyone along while forming the GBA.
Shivakumar said there will be a meeting on July 27 with all the legislators from Bengaluru and the ministers on this issue to clear all doubts.
BJP leader and former councilor Padmanabha Reddy commented that this bill in fact centralises the municipal corporations instead of decentralising city governance.
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