Towards making of Greater Bangalore

Towards making of Greater Bangalore
An expert committee is working out strategies to ensure planned growth of Bangalore agglomerate
The Times of India

Villages realising that ultimate city dream, panchayats becoming booming zonal offices of Bangalore, the city itself extending to 741 sq km. That's Greater Bangalore, a reality that is slated to materialise completely by mid-2007.
The number of wards in Greater Bangalore is planned to be 150, from the existing 100. However, the Governor, T N Chaturvedi is questioning this move. Presently, it is only the draft notification for Greater Bangalore that is ready and is put up for suggestions and public objections. The Government officials say that so far, the public has come up with suggestions and that there have been no written objections.
Meanwhile, the State Government has constituted an expert committee to suggest strategies to ensure the planned growth of Bangalore agglomerate. Headed by eminent space scientist and Rajya Sabha MP K Kasturirangan, the committee members include former chief secretary and deputy chairman of state planning board A Ravindra, Public Affairs Centre (PAC) chairman Samuel Paul, founder-director of International Institute for Information Technology-Bangalore S Sadagopan and a retired bureaucrat Sivaramakrishanan. The government on November 2 officially notified for creation of Greater Bangalore.
Members of this expert committee met for the first time on November 25, with preliminary discussions on what the immediate measures should be. The mandate for the committee as specified in the terms of reference reads: 'The committee would work on a new comprehensive legislation that would deal with the development and regulation of the Bangalore Metropolitan Region (BMR), which is witnessing rapid economic and demographic growth'.
To tackle the problem of unregulated growth on the outskirts of the city, the committee has been given the explanation, 'In a bid to design and develop a seamless, effective and well coordinated management structure not only for the proposed Greater Bangalore but also for the entire BMR, the expert committee has asked to review the administrative structures and legal framework currently operative within the BMR, which will involve an appraisal of the role and functional responsibilities of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) in the BMR. To make recommendations regarding the structure of the new legal framework for governance in the BMR which would cover all ULBs as also other organisations such as BDA, BMRDA, BWSSB and spell out the coordination mechanisms and accountability of such bodies to the ULB in the BMR'.
In addition, the committee will examine and suggest measures necessary to ensure governance within the newlyexpanded local body. It will advocate to the government to reorganise the institutional framework. It will also recommend alternative models for effective governance.
The committee has been given freedom in that they can refer to the recommendations of the committee on Urban Management of Bangalore (1997) and suggest those which can be adopted with or without modifications. This move will be good for Bangalore as 50 percent of migrants to the city live in these areas and the others have moved here because of sky-rocketing real estate prices in the central parts.