Bengaluru for BBMP Election

A B.PAC campaign to establishing and strengthening grassroots democracy

Bhrut Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the Bengaluru city local body is functioning without an elected council since September 2020. There is a wide gap between citizen’s requirements and service delivery by BBMP and this gap has further extended without an elected corporator.

74th Amendment Act established a mandate for decentralizing powers and authorities to Urban Local Bodies (ULB). This is aimed to create an institutional framework to let in grassroots democracy through self-governing local bodies in urban areas. Having an elected council and ward corporators elected by citizens is the spirit of decentralized democracy.

B.PAC curated #BengaluruForBBMPElection campaign earlier this month. This social media campaign focused on revisiting the responsibilities of a corporator, Chronology of activities traversed from 2020 to 2022, Snippets of BBMP Act 2020, citizens views on the BBMP election affairs and many more. The call to action was loud and clear – Citizen voice is key in establishing and strengthening grassroots democracy.

Link to the campaign presentation – https://bit.ly/3v77Flf

•       The roles of a municipal corporator: https://tinyurl.com/38hr5nea
•       List of zone/AC wise mapping of 243 BBMP wards – https://bit.ly/3XG0a1s
•       Summary & detailed BBMP act: https://bit.ly/3VoqqvJ | http://bit.ly/3gr1AMF
•       243 BBMP Wards: https://bit.ly/3VNMIHc

A discussion – Bengaluru for BBMP Election today organized by B.PAC today covering the themes – 74th CAA – Local self Govt, Civic service delivery, Court cases related to BBMP Election, Politics and political parties views on BBM Election and Benefits of having an elected representative and council in BBMP.

The discussion was attended by Gangambike Mallikarjun, Former Mayor, BBMP, Manjunath Raju, Former Standing Committee Chairperson, BBMP, Kathyayini Chamaraj, CIVIC Bangalore, Harish N, Member B.PAC, Ravikumar S, B.CLIPAA and Sharath Khadri, Citizen Activist

Campaign call to action:

Institutional reforms such as moving the powers from state govt to State Election commission in completing election process is essential and state govt should not have any role in conducting elections for local bodies

Public grievances are not getting adequately addressed without BBMP corporators and council. Without BBMP council there is no accountability of officials working to address civic issues in the wards

This is a collective failure of all political leaders of the city and leading to entanglement in court cases. Elected representatives in BBMP is a real calling of the current day