BMP bats for one corporation

BMP bats for one corporation
The Times of India

Bangalore: Should Greater Bangalore have a monolith corporation handling the entire city or should there be two or three different corporations with their jurisdictions? Consensus of BMP officials at a meeting with chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had it that Bangalore should have a single corporation to tackle the entire city, simply because people even outside BMP limits depend on this department to address their woes.

Kumaraswamy along with district in-charge minister R Ashok held a marathon meeting on Sunday with BMP officials for an update on various urban issues. The urban development department made a presentation on the various combinations that could be considered for Greater Bangalore. However, a decision is yet to be taken.

The contentious grade-separator at Malleswaram was addressed and again a concrete decision on having the project or scrapping it has been deferred. Ashok has once again asked for a relook on some of the “unanswered questions” of the project, like relocation of a bus stand and the road width.

The BMP had recently made a plea to the government, seeking easing of restrictions on the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR). This has found approval from the CM who heard out that it was necessary to liberalise some of the restrictions to attract more citizens into buying the TDR certificates. The urban department will, however, have to look into the technical and legal hitches of liberalising it.

For the purpose of road widening invoking the provisions of TDR, BMP requires some defence land and CM has assured them that the state would write to the Central government to speed up the acquisition.

As for the long-pending Bill on regularising building deviations, because the cabinet has not yet taken a formal decision despite an informal one on regularising 50 per cent of deviations, there might be an ordinance soon.

The BMP on Sunday asked the state for financial assistance to the tune of Rs 100 crore which again has been given an aye by the CM.