BMP to discuss City’s infrastructure today

BMP to discuss City’s infrastructure today
Deccan Herald

At 11 am on Saturday, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike will hold public consultations across 30 different places in the City. The topic will be infrastructure and basic services needs of the city. The programme is part of the mandatory exercises in preparation of a City Development Plan for Bangalore as required under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. (JN-NURM)

The BMP administration is reportedly ready with detailed project reports (DPRs) of combined estimate totalling to Rs 300 crore and the same will be placed before the public. The BMP has however seemingly failed to give sufficient publicity to the public consultations.

Sections among activists and residents’ groups have pointed out that people should be educated about JN-NURM, before holding these consultations. To note, JN-NURM was launched by the Centre in December 2005. Deccan Herald spoke to the elected representatives in the BMP to elicit their views:

Corporator M K Gunashekar (Congress): (He was among the first corporators to broach the issue of JN-NURM in the BMP Council): “I am yet to be fully updated on the programme. The briefing given by the officials during the council meeting last week was rushed up. I had a lot of questions to ask, but there was no opportunity for it. I know that we will receive funds for infrastructure and urban poor oriented projects, but I don’t know what the specific projects are. Now in case of public consultations, advance information is not given to the general public. Hopefully the people will be given a chance to voice their opinion later through letters and e-mails”

B R Nanjundappa (Opposition JD-S leader): “We had asked for a council meeting exclusively to discuss and understand JN-NURM. What we got was only a hurried briefing, last week.

The official intimation on the public hearings came to me (a corporator myself) only this (Friday) afternoon. Scant publicity was given to the public hearings. It needs to be seen whether there will be satisfactory participation from the public.”

H Basavaraj (Opposition BJP leader): “I am waiting to see the response to the public hearings. People should have been notified at least a week in advance through banners, handbills etc. Advertisements have been issued only on Thursday, how can people be expected to discuss such a big issue in such a short time? We (corporators) will participate on Saturday, but we will also ask for another round of discussions.”

H Ravindra (Ruling Congress leader): “All corporators will participate in the public hearings. Both corporators and the public can ask and clarify for themselves whatever they have not understood about the programme. JN-NURM programme is still new, we can learn about it along the way.”

Mayor Mumtaz Begum: “It is a programme by the Central government. Corporators have been briefed about it during the monthly meeting. All of us will participate.”

HAVE YOUR SAY

In a bid to help cities find their own standing, the Central government unveiled the JN-NURM in December 2005. As many as 63 cities have been chosen to receive central assistance for infrastructure development and basic services to the urban poor over the next 7 years.

Deccan Herald, in this special series, highlights different aspects of the JN-NURM. You can have your say in the City planning under the project and we will publish them. Send your responses with name, address, phone numbers to editor@deccanherald.co.in or fax it to 25880523 or post it to Deccan Herald, 75, MG Road, Bangalore-1.

IIM MEET ON SATURDAY

The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore will be holding a discussion on the JN-NURM at its campus on Saturday at 10 am.

“JN-NURM is a huge programme and is being rolled out very fast. We are trying to figure out whether it is public interest and if so, it is being implemented at the ground level. It needs to be seen whether the Right to Information Act will help us here,” Prof Trilochan Sastry of IIMB told Deccan Herald.

Notable participants will be Mr Arvind Kejriwal of the Delhi-based Parivarthan, Mr Girish Sant of the the Pune-based Prayas, and Mr Rajendran of the Madhya Pradesh-based Jan Sahayog.