Greater Bangalore blueprint by October 10

Greater Bangalore blueprint by October 10
Vijay Times

BBaannggaallo orree:: The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) is expected to be ready with the blue print by Oct 10 for its ambitious ‘Greater Bangalore’ project - the merger of seven city municipal councils (CMCs), a town municipal council (TMC) and some gram panchayats.

According to BMP sources, the civic body has constituted a steering group headed by BMP special commissioner Gourav Gupta as chairman to prepare the blueprint as per the schedule.

The group comprises all the joint commissioners, chief accounts officer, chief auditor, council secretary as members and joint commissioner (administration) as the convener.

The joint commissioner (administration), apart from being a convener of the steering group, will co-ordinate with deputy commissioner (urban) M A Sadiq, director of municipal administration and the project director, and the district urban development agency.

Sources said to expedite the process of Greater Bangalore, Vasanth Rao, a deputy commissioner from commercial tax department, has been posted to the civic body as the BMP DC (resources). He has been entrusted with the task of identifying and developing sources to augment revenue, implementation of solid waste management cess and infrastructure cess.

The Greater Bangalore process also involves completing all the legal formalities prior to merger, sources added.

The BMP has to work out delimitation of wards scientifically based on the population and fix the geographical boundaries for each ward. The provision of adequate staff for smooth functioning of Greater Bangalore is essential, they said.

The steering group must assess the requirements water supply, under ground drainage, solid waste management - and plan its future requirements, sources said.

Also required are some amendments for regularising unauthorised or violated portions of buildings in the City.

Regularising 100 per cent of the deviated portions will fetch revenue as well as help in the proper development of Bangalore combined with CMCs and TMC, sources explained.

As part of the project, the BMP plans to renovate its Council Hall to expand the seating capacity to 150 seats from the present 100.

BBMMPP p prreep paarraat ti ioonns s* Appropriate administrative arrangements, working out financial estimates * Codifying properties, enlarging administration to new wards * Legal formalities, including ward delimitation * All commissioners and chief officers of CMCs and TMC, municipality director to report to BMP commissioner