`Greater Bangalore' may mean higher taxes for CMC areas

`Greater Bangalore' may mean higher taxes for CMC areas

The Hindu

Residents worried that they may have to pay for non-existent facilities

# BMP officials want to take up emergency work
# Panel studying administrative pattern in CMCs

BANGALORE: Potholes, chaotic traffic, corruption and crumbling infrastructure — will these be a thing of the past with the formation of Greater Bangalore?

At least this is the promise that the authorities are holding out for harried citizens of the city and its suburbs. The committee set up by Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Commissioner K. Jairaj to prepare a blueprint for the administration of Greater Bangalore is working towards making these basic services a reality.

With the State Government keen on merging the seven city municipal councils, one town municipal council and 106 villages bordering the outskirts with the BMP and forming a single corporation, most citizens are sceptical about the promises held out. "Will it mean increased hardship or will it reduce day-to-day difficulties?," they ask. "If my area is merged with the BMP, how will I benefit? I may have to run to the head office every time I want to pay my tax or for any other service, which I presently do at the local CMC office," C. Ramachandra, president of B. Narayanapura Residents' Welfare Association said.

T.D. Ramakrishna, president of Ramamurthy Nagar Residents' Welfare Association and Lakshman Kumar, Bommanahalli CMC Area Residents' Welfare Association, agree with him.

Residents worried

Mr. Kumar said residents of CMCs are worried whether they should pay taxes and user fee for facilities that they did not enjoy. "If it is a single corporation, there will be uniformity in taxes and we may have to pay more than what we are paying now," he said.

But BMP officials, who said that they were doing their best to ensure that there was minimum inconvenience to citizens, said their immediate agenda was to take up emergency work necessary for upgradation of infrastructure.

BMP Special Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, who is heading the BMP committee, told The Hindu that the panel was working on a blueprint to set up an appropriate administration pattern in new areas.

Asserting that the BMP was doing preparatory work to facilitate the formation of Greater Bangalore, Mr. Gupta said: "We have started interactions with the officials from the CMCs to work out an administrative structure similar to that of BMP. We want to be ready with it before the final notification is out."

He said the committee was studying the existing taxation system in the CMCs, administrative set up, solid waste management techniques, accounting and finances, properties and assets and other issues such as drainage and streetlights.

The BMP would set up citizen service centres and zonal officers so that people need not come to the head office for everything. "We will depute officials and deploy field workers to carry out surveys of assets and properties in the suburbs. These officials will identify the locations for zonal offices and service centres," Mr. Gupta added.