Bengaluru : Namma Bengaluru Foundation, CIVIC and Bengaluru Residents Associations Confederation Ensemble-BRACE (a confederation of over 1200 resident welfare associations) held a protest at town hall today against the arbitrary, mala fide and dilatory tactics of the State Government to delay elections to the BBMP at any cost. The protestors have strongly urged the Chief Minister to uphold the citizen’s constitutional right to elect their local representatives. The citizens here want a free, fair and timely elections and they were protesting against the failure of Constitutional manchinery in the state.
Bengalureans have been watching helplessly, as the Siddaramaiah Government is using the excuse of trifurcation of BBMP to delay elections to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The plan being to then administer and control Bengaluru directly without an elected council – qualifying as one more conspiracy that puts politics over citizens and constitution.
A special session of the assembly has been convened to amend the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, to trifurcate BBMP into three corporations. The session is being called despite the State Government’s appeal pending before the High Court. In the meanwhile, in a hurriedly convened meeting on 17th April, 2015, the Cabinet decided to supersede the BBMP on grounds of financial irregularities and an Administrator was appointed on 18th April, 2015 to run the BBMP.
The Cabinet decision and the appointment of an Administrator, reeks of a larger scheme to sideline and demoralize the urban self-governance institutions in Karnataka. This decision shows complete disregard for all democratic principles enshrined in our Constitution. Not only has this decision been taken with a clear intent to circumvent the judicial process, but it also aimed at sidestepping the constitutionally mandated electoral process. Bengaluru was run by an administrator for 3 years from 2008-2010, and this period saw no significant improvement in the way Bengaluru was governed.
Sridhar Pabbisetty, CEO, Namma Bengaluru Foundation said that ““It should be acknowledged that the governance deficit cannot be merely attributed to BBMP’s unwieldy size. By doing so, the fundamental reasons for poor governance are being entirely missed. Until the issue of administrative incompetence, cronyism, understaffing and financial devolution aren’t adequately dealt with, the whole exercise of BBMP restructuring would be futile. The last ditch effort by the Cabinet to supersede the BBMP and the appointment of an administrator to run BBMP is a desperate attempt by the State Government to not circumvent the electoral process. The State Government hold elections to the BBMP at the earliest, and focus on a comprehensive overhaul of the KMC Act, MPC rules and acts governing parastatals in a holistic manner with public consultations over the next 5 years.”
Kathyayini Chamaraj, Executive Trustee, CIVIC said that “The State government has been using dilatory tactics to postpone elections to BBMP on the plea that BBMP needs to be trifurcated. This goes against the 74th Constitutional Amendment which requires elections to urban local bodies to be always held in a timely manner before the term of the existing council ends. It is imperative for the state government to respect the High Court judgement to hold elections. It is also essential for citizens to protest against this attempt to violate the Constitution.”
