It will be a long wait for new areas

It will be a long wait for new areas
The Hindu

Officials say work on improving amenities in all areas will continue

# 20 range offices to be set up in the new area
# Officials will make a presentation asking for more funds from the Government


BANGALORE: With the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) taking shape, the officials promise better roads, piped water supply and a proper underground drainage system to replace the existing mud lanes, borewell water and septic tanks in the new areas after March.

Twenty new range offices will be opened, in addition to the existing 30 offices, in a phased manner across the 741 square km area of BBMP. Each of these offices will have field officials in health, sanitation, revenue and engineering.

In his maiden press conference as Commissioner of BBMP K. Jairaj said on Thursday that the eight urban local bodies (ULBs — seven CMCs and one TMC) and 110 villages had been converted into five zones. These were in addition to the existing three zones of the erstwhile BMP.

This apart, more citizen service centres would be set up where people could pay bills, get birth and death certificates, khatas, trade licences and all other services. While the existing system of paying property tax would continue (Capital Value based System in ULBs and Annual Rental Value based assessment in BMP) till March 31, a uniform system would be evolved after that, Mr. Jairaj said. "We have made interim arrangements till the end of this financial year and uniform rules would be imposed only after that. All ongoing works in the ULBs would continue," he said.

10-point agenda

He said he had chalked out a 10-point contingency plan for upgrading basic amenities in the ULBs.

"I have directed the Commissioners of ULBs to conduct a revenue survey and draw out a plan of the existing infrastructure in their areas. The emphasis will be on ensuring regular water supply, proper sanitation and solid waste management and adequate street lights in ULBs," he said. "Issues that need to be tackled in the long-run include payment of betterment charges, advertising bylaws, rules for getting trade licence, khata and other services. We have the question of what can be done with buildings that have come up on revenue land but are not assessed. All these will be resolved by March 31," he said.

Administrator of BBMP Dilip Rau said BBMP officials would urge the State Government to allot additional funds to meet the infrastructure deficit in ULBs. "We will submit a representation to the Government for extra allocations in the budget," he said.