BBMP puts payment details, project status online

DH and Citizens for Civic Amenities

Babu Nagesh Rao, a resident, asks a question at the event. 

Citizens interact with Mayor Gangambike Millikarjun at the event. 

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has posted details of work bill payment and status of projects on its website.

The move is to facilitate the conduct of ward committee meetings, starting on Saturday, in a structured manner.

Speaking at the Deccan Herald-Prajavani Citizen for Civic Amenities event, focused on the theme ‘Ward Committees: Bringing Democracy to Your Doorstep’, BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said the site has been updated with details of payments by the BBMP to various departments, including figures and names of the respective engineers and contractors.

“In the coming months, we will include the digital maps of 8,515 polling stations on the website. We will also have tax details of all the properties in the wards, including who has paid and not paid the tax,” he said.

The work order to the status of the projects taken up from 2016-2019 has been uploaded on the Palike’s portal. The site now contains details of the Nagarothana projects, solid waste management initiatives, Swachh Bharat mission programmes and lake development projects in all 198 wards.

“In future, we are also planning to put out the proceedings of the monthly ward committee meetings, council meetings and standing committee meetings. We will design our website as the most user-friendly one,” he added.

In an effort to involve other agencies, Prasad will be requesting BWSSB, BMTC, Bescom, BDA and BMRCL representatives to be present at the ward meetings to address people’s grievances.

Taking the ward committee meetings to the next level, the BBMP commissioner has also directed officials to publicise details of property tax collections in each ward during the meetings.

Citizens can expect the minutes of the ward committee meetings to be posted on the website within two months.

'Ward sabhas a must'

“For the complete decentralisation of urban governance, ward sabhas will help strengthen grassroots-level administration, said N Manjunath Prasad, BBMP Commissioner.

Speaking at the DH-Prajavani Citizens for Civic Amenities event, focused on the theme, ‘Ward Committees: Bringing Democracy to Your Doorstep,“ Prasad said, “according to the rules set in Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, each polling station should have a ward sabha. In the city, there are around 40 polling stations in each ward and a total of 8,515 polling stations. We can make this possible.”

The BBMP chief hopes that in the future, ward sabhas will be formed after the success of the ward committees.