Who is in charge of Bengaluru? Seeking solutions amid rapid urbanisation

WHO should govern Bengaluru? Policymakers often tossed the question about but ultimately chose to continue with the status quo.

The sheer speed of expansion of the once laid-back city has left urban planners gasping for breath. Its salubrious climate attracted billions of dollars of investments in the tech sector transforming it from a pensioner’s paradise to a tech and startup hub.

In 2007, the state government expanded the civic body’s limits by adding eight urban local bodies and 111 villages around the city.

With the city expanding to a 741 sq km area, the administrators eyed higher property taxes. While this was complex enough, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), the urban regulator as well as a developer of housing layouts, has been taking the city miles beyond the civic body’s (BBMP) limits.

Eyeing extra funds, the BDA has littered the city with under-developed layouts that are a haven for property brokers and speculators. The debate around a functional governance structure for the city has cost citizens an elected body since September 2020.

“Even when there was an elected council, the mayor rotated every year with no power whatsoever. It was a classic case of disempowering the biggest growth engine Karnataka has,” says TV Mohandas Pai, chairman, of Aarin Capital Partners.

A study shows Bengaluru’s urban cover will expand to 1323 sq km by next year. But the political class has not acted on suggestions like having an empowered mayor with executive authority or breaking the civic body into three.

The previous BJP regime decided to increase the number of municipal wards in the city from 198 to 243, but the present Congress regime wants the number cut to 225.

The consensus between them, however, is to retain the single, bloated body. Which takes the city’s administration back to square one.