Great hope in the air

Great hope in the air
Greater Bangalore Will Be Fully Functional And Implemented In 2007
The Times of India

Bangalore: From today, Nanjaiah (40), a resident of a village near Rajarajeshwarinagar, can proudly call himself a Bangalorean. The elevation from a ‘villager’ and the attendant amenities like good roads, taxation and fringe benefits like having ‘Bangalore’ on his ration card means a lot for him.
For over 15-lakh citizens of the seven City Municipal Corporations (CMCs), one Town Municipal Corporation (TMC) and village panchayats, that is really the bonanza from the great merger which has resulted in Greater Bangalore.
While the cabinet has cleared the proposal, officials hasten to add that the actual implementation will come into effect in early 2007. Simply because of the massive infrastructure overhaul and administrative challenges which are part of the exercise.
Explained BMP special commissioner Gaurav Gupta: “We need to move to a system of a common municipal entity. We are working on shoring up finances with an immediate restoration plan. And we’ll finally have a decentralised administration, which means small but definite changes like common specification for all roads, amenities like parks and garbage clearance from all the villages and CMC areas.’’
According to the logistics worked out so far, the existing 30 MoHs (health ranges) would increase to 45 and the three zonal jurisdictions (East, West and South) will subsequently increase to five. Offices will be set up at the local level, there will be decentralisation of administration enabling people to seek redressal of their grievances and get problems sorted out at the respective jurisdictional level. For instance, a person from Yelahanka would not have to come all the way to the BMP head office, said officials.
While the revenue collection from BMP limits presently is estimated to touch Rs 400 crore, from the periphery it stands at Rs 40 crore. Officials are hopeful that with 12 lakh properties in Bangalore agglomerate, the revenue collection will go up.
Here’s to a greater change.
POINTS TO PONDER
Would a single administrator for Greater Bangalore make the administration far away from people?
The number of persons per corporator presently is 43,013. In Greater Bangalore, the number of persons per corporator will be 50,000 persons.
How long will elections to the urban local bodies be deferred? Until then, do citizens have to run to one administrator for all civic problems?