The outgoing State government under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delayed holding civic polls in the city by over two and a half years, citing their efforts to revamp the city’s governance with a new dedicated Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Act, 2020. Now that Congress is all set to take office, hopes of an immediate civic election, seem to be a mirage again, as Congress, that had opposed the BBMP Act, 2020 terming it a “missed opportunity to fix Bengaluru”, has promised to bring in a new law for city governance.
It can be recalled that multiple Congress MLAs in the standing committee led by S. Raghu, BJP MLA, which reviewed the BBMP Act, 2020, did not sign the committee’s recommendations in protest against the Draft Bill.
In its manifesto, Congress has promised that a new BBMP law will bring all service providers, such as water supply and sewage, transport, housing, power and development authorities, under a single agency. The proposal was welcomed by several civic activists, if these parastatals are made answerable to BBMP. However, sources in Congress said all the various parastatals in the city will be brought under one agency chaired by the Chief Minister.
