Bengaluru: Bengaluru is growing haphazardly, but at the same time the city is being managed poorly by the authorities, points out the India's City Systems survey conducted by the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. The report, released on Tuesday, states that the IT Capital has slid to the 16th position from 12th in 2015.
“It indicates that we are not adequately equipped to manage urbanisation well,” stated the survey, conducted across 21 cities in the country.
“On Urban Planning and Design, Bengaluru has a poor score of 2.7 out of 10. This is due to the BDA Master plan. They need to be accountable to someone. We need a Metropolitan Planning Committee at the BBMP,” said V.R. Vachana, Associate, Advocacy and Reforms, Janagraaha.
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“In Urban Capacities and Resources too, we rank low with a score of 2.4 because of lack of effective collection of property tax. The city collects only 1/10 of its potential property tax,” Vachana said.
“The short, one-year term for the mayor affects continuity. In other cities, the mayor’s term is five years," she explained.
As for transparency, cities like Pune have implemented participatory budgeting exercise based on citizen's inputs, which Bengaluru should emulate, Vachana said.
On devolution of powers to the BBMP, Vachana said, “As per 74th amendment, civic functions have to come under the BBMP. But various operations like water, transport, etc are handled by BWSSB, BMTC and others."
