Karnataka govt likely to split Bengaluru civic body into smaller corporations

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The Karnataka government is likely to split Bengaluru's civic body, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), into smaller corporations.

State government sources have said that the draft bill is ready and will be approved by the Cabinet before being tabled in the Assembly.

"The draft bill is ready and is under evaluation by the state law and urban development departments. The draft allows the government to establish up to 10 corporations and up to 400 wards. The government has to decide on the number of wards and corporations" a source told Moneycontrol.

"The current two-tier system, with wards at the lowest level and BBMP at the top, is not working, affecting the quality of life of citizens. The bill proposes a three-tier governance framework, which envisages creation of empowered ward committees at the lowest level, a set of municipal corporations at the middle level, and a Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) at the top," one of the sources said.

Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara confirmed this to reporters on June 12. "If you look at London, they have many councils for effective administration. So we are contemplating dividing Bengaluru city to improve administration," he said.

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Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah conducted a meeting on June 10 with deputy CM and Bengaluru development minister DK Shivakumar, ministers Ramalinga Reddy, KJ George, and Zameer Ahmed Khan, and several legislators from Bengaluru. After the meeting, energy minister George wrote on X (formerly Twitter): "During the meeting, we held discussions on BBMP zoning to provide better infrastructure to the growing needs of Bengaluru city."

During the previous Congress regime (2013-2018), a committee led by former chief secretary BS Patil recommended restructuring the BBMP into five smaller corporations, each with its mayor reporting to GBA. The GBA would have a directly elected mayor with a five-year tenure.

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The Patil-led committee proposed five municipal corporations -- North, Central, West, South, and East. The North (154 sq km) would cover Byatarayanapura, RR Nagar, Dasarahalli, Yeswantpur, and Yelahanka. The Central (72 sq km) would include Shivaji Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Hebbal, Pulakeshi Nagar, Malleshwaram, RR Nagar, Rajaji Nagar, and Mahalakshmi Layout. The West (156 sq km), Yeswantpur, RR Nagar, Govindaraja Nagar, Vijaya Nagar, Chamarajpet, Chickpet, Basavanagudi, Padmanabha Nagar, and Bengaluru South. The South (116 sq km), Chickpet, Jayanagar, Bommanahalli, Bengaluru South, Shantinagar, and BTM Layout. And finally, the East (212 sq km), would cover Shivaji Nagar, CV Raman Nagar, Sarvagna Nagar, KR Puram, and Mahadevapura.

Congress MLC Nagaraju Yadav told Moneycontrol that decentralisation is the Congress party’s priority. “Bengaluru has grown from 708 sq km to around 1,350 sq km, A centralised administration for a megacity like Bengaluru is not viable or sustainable. For instance, one commissioner cannot handle the entire city to address traffic, water logging, tax collection, etc.," he said.

BJP, on the other hand, opposes the move, stating that Congress is dividing Bengaluru after BJP swept all four Lok Sabha seats, including Bengaluru Rural, which the party won for the first time. BJP MP candidates also gained lead in Congress MLA assembly segments such as Gandhinagar, BTM Layout, Govindraj Nagar, and Vijayanagar.

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In 2023 state assembly election, the BJP won 16 constituencies in Bengaluru, while the Congress won 12 constituencies. "Going by the Lok Sabha and assembly results, we will sweep the BBMP polls as urban voters are with us. It’s a Congress ploy to split Bengaluru into multiple corporations to win at least a few," a BJP leader said.

There are also rumours that restructuring the BBMP is a ploy to further delay the BBMP polls since MLAs in Bengaluru, irrespective of their parties, are not in favour of conducting civic polls due to the fear of losing their clout.

However, Yadav said: "BJP has been winning Bengaluru seats in Lok Sabha elections for a long time, but despite that, Congress had mayors in the past. BJP hasn’t conducted civic polls since 2020, but we are not running away from conducting elections. We want to conduct BBMP polls after addressing the root problems through decentralisation.”

In Delhi, however, three civic bodies - East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) - were re-unified into a single entity on May 22, 2022, known as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.