Bengaluru: Measures must be taken to make the BBMP financially sound, steps have to be initiated to streamline the city’s roads and make them pothole-free, solutions must be found to fulfil the increasing water needs of the city, there must be more interaction with the citizens to discern their problems …these were among the suggestions put forth by former BBMP mayors to the incumbent G. Padmavati.
Mayor Padmavati had on Friday invited her predecessors to express their views on ways in which to improve the city. Sharing his suggestion, one of them, former mayor K Lakkanna (1992-93) said: “BBMP must prioritize revenue generation. If the BBMP wants to increase its revenue, development cess must be levied and collected."
During the past 20 years, the city has grown 4 times. Due to this spontaneous growth, it is difficult to provide the needed services to citizens. Garbage collection and management has become a big problem today. If a solution has to be found to these issues, citizen involvement is an important factor. For this purpose ward committees have to be set up. But ward committees are not yet in place, said former BBMP Mayor P R Ramesh (2003-04).
He also suggested that a drinking water crisis is staring at us and it is the right time to chart out plans for water conservation like rainwater harvesting.
