Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, 2024, scores only slightly better than BBMP Act, 2020: Study – NSP NEWS

An aerial view of buildings in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

A comparative evaluation of the Greater Bengaluru Governance (GBG) Bill, 2024 that the State government tabled in the Assembly recently has shown that the Bill scores only slightly better than the current Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Act, 2020, according to a comparative evaluation by the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy.

The ruling Congress members had dissented against the draft of the BBMP Act, 2020, brought in by the BJP, in the legislature committee calling it a “missed opportunity to fix Bengaluru”. But the evaluation says the GBG Bill, 2024 is only nearly half as good as the draft submitted to the government by the Brand Bengaluru Committee. 

The Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy did a comparative evaluation of the GBG Bill, 2024, the draft recommended by the Brand Bengaluru Committee, the BBMP Act, 2020, and the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976.

The evaluation was based on the four principles of urban governance: urban planning and design, urban capacities and resources, empowered and legitimate political representation and transparency, accountability and participation – based on 33 questions, scoring them on a scale of 0 to 10. 

While the GBG Bill, 2024, got a score of 3.35, the BBMP Act, 2020, scored 3.23, even as the Draft GBG Bill scored 6.5, and the KMC Act, 1976, scored 2.04. The GBG Bill, 2024, has scored a zero with no planning component at all in the Bill, compared to the KMC Act, 1976, and the BBMP Act, 2020, which scored 1.33 each. 

Janaagraha has identified 10 missed opportunities in the GBG Bill, 2024, including provisions for a metropolitan Mayor, Mayor-in-council, an ombudsman, the proposed apex layer Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) responsible for integrated planning on the Bengaluru metropolitan area, establishment of a municipal cadre, among others. While the draft provides for seven of these features, the GBG Bill, 2024, provides for none, Janaagraha has said. 

“Bengaluru is a significant contributor to the national economy. The city deserves a modern and innovative governance model to be able to continue on its robust path of growth. Bengalureans deserve a much better quality of life, on par with that of international cities. The expectation that the GBG Bill will usher in a progressive governance model, which could facilitate significant improvement in different aspects of people’s lives, has been betrayed with the tabling of a very limiting Bill. It is also disappointing to note that the government has chosen to ignore many of the desirable recommendations of the Brand Bengaluru Committee,” said Srikanth Viswanathan, CEO, Janaagraha.