A stealthy exercise

The manner in which the City’s civic authority, the BBMP made its annual budget public was not only unconventional, but stealthy too. Uploading the budget on the website in the dying moments before the end of the financial year speaks of perfunctory compliance with the rules and reflects both crudity and awkwardness. It is a relief that the action has not gone unnoticed.

Given the absence of the elected council since October 2020, the Bruhath Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) should have explored other options such as tabling the budget in the Legislature. It would have been the most logical option as Bengaluru hosts one-fifth of the State’s populace and generates 60 per cent of the State’s GDP. Moreover, the CM himself holds the portfolio of city affairs. Furthermore, all city legislators and MPs too find representation in mayoral elections and other vital decisions of the Council. This would have allowed a discussion on allocations that take away major chunk of the finances for development.

The budget sets aside a staggering sum of Rs. 924 crore for ward-level work and places Rs. 830 crore at the discretionary disposal of the Chief Minister and two key IAS officers who administer the authority. Much of these financial allocations lack accountability. Had there been an elected council, these funds would have been under the mayoral fund. The wardlevel work has always been a grey area where much happens without scrutiny and with total opacity. It does not behoove a Chief Minister who has spoken about transparency time and again. This being the final year before Assembly elections, it is fair to guess that MLAs will dictate terms for disbursal of the ward-level funds which may amount to no less than Rs. 30 crore, given the number of wards falling in each constituency.

Solid waste management (SWM) is the Achilles Heel of the city’s administration. The budget allocates Rs. 1,469 crore for the purpose. Major outgo is reserved for the purchase of new tipper vehicles this year. Most of the garbage collection is contracted out to benami operators and the Palike is billed for much of the work that is not done. The BBMP has been constantly stonewalling the plea to link the garbage trucks with GPS. The budget proposes creation of two new landfill sites. Humongous expansion of the city without prior planning has taken it near landfill sites created decades ago. Inhabitants of nearby villages were up in arms against toxic leachate from these landfills polluting their water sources. Landfills only allow garbage contractors to thrive. With ward-level composting plants encountering opposition, the BBMP should have conceived some in-situ solution, which it refuses to do. The biodegradation of wet waste in compost pits could have been an option but remains unexplored. It presupposes segregation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable content from collected waste which would need foolproof arrangement for separate transportation.

The budget makes no allocation for pothole repairs which have cost human lives. Experience during the pandemic had exposed the deficiencies in the public healthcare system. The budget envisages strengthening 37 new Primary Healthcare Centres and 213 Namma clinics. Similarly it proposes two new crematoriums. These are welcome features of the budget.