Congress MLA - Leaders at Renaissance Hotel in Powai Mumbai
BENGALURU: When five prominent legislators of Bengaluru City — R Ramalinga Reddy (BTM Layout), ST Somashekar (Yeshwanthpur), Byrathi Basavaraj (KR Puram), Munirathna (RR Nagar), and K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout) — submitted their resignations to the Assembly Speaker three weeks ago, their decision came as a shocker to the JD(S)-Congress coalition. These legislators, who wielded enormous power in the city and its developmental work, had little reason to be unhappy over the funds that were being allocated to their constituencies.
Ramalinga Reddy, seven-time MLA who represents BTM Layout — one of the constituencies receiving the highest funds — has since withdrawn his resignation. The remaining four have remained with other rebel MLAs in Mumbai.
Data on the funds granted (special grants) by the state government to the 28 Assembly constituencies in Bengaluru City shows five constituencies have consistently received the biggest share over the last six years from fiscal years 2013 to 2018. This financial year has been no different. As the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) struggles to raise revenue, it relies largely on state government funds. These funds are used to carry out various developmental works like construction of roads and footpaths, railway-overbridges and underbridges, skywalks, lake rejuvenation, land acquisition, development of high density corridors, etc.
One reasons these constituencies get the lion’s share is because they are bigger and fast-growing. All of them are situated in the city’s periphery. Second, the size of the funding reflects the clout of these MLAs. All these five Assembly constituencies are new and were formed following the delimitation exercise of 2008.
Interestingly, Mahadevapura, which is also a large constituency with an ever-growing population but held by a BJP legislator — received much less (only Rs 667.89 crore) in six years. This figure is almost half of what RR Nagar received. This year, Mahadevapura has been granted only Rs 10 crore and is one of the least funded constituencies. The Assembly segments that received least funds — Basavanagudi, Chamarajpet and Rajaji Nagar — are all comparatively smaller constituencies and represent old Bengaluru. On an average, each Assembly segment received about Rs 500 crore from the state government in the last six years.
