Bangalore Mirror: Bangalore: Wednesday, July 05, 2017.
The Bruhat
Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has yet again failed to deliver on the expectations
of citizens, as the cumbersome task of forming ward committees after facing the
ire of the judiciary seems to have hit rough weather. Citizen action groups
have deemed the whole affair a well enacted farce.
On June 29,
BBMP notified the High Court of Karnataka that the work of forming ward
committees had concluded in 131 wards and got a breather till July 17 to get on
with work on the other 67 wards. However, Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) has
decided to file mass right to information (RTI) applications on June 14 to find
out the manner in which the committees were finalised.
Srinivas
Alavilli, co-coordinator, CFB, told Bangalore Mirror, “We have decided to file
RTIs with the BBMP commissioner’s office and found out how the applications
submitted to his office were not considered for membership in any of the 131
ward committees that have been notified till date.”
“Our aim is
to educate the common masses and make them aware of the power of
decentralisation and how citizens can drive change by being a part of the local
government. The manner in which the current ward committees have been notified
shows that politicians from the level of councillor and above are only
interested in vote banks but not equal participation from citizens in the
decision making process.” Not only CfB, but other associations like the
Domestic Workers Rights Association, Slum Dwellers Association along with
various RWAs are crying foul over the manner in which the ward committees have been
selected as they comprise only of party workers, kith and kin of councillors.
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