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ABIDe's Bengaluru Governance Act: Basics getting in place?

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idontspam - 5 February, 2009 | Bangalore | governance | BBMP | Kasturi Rangan | urban development | Abide | Reforms | Review | Participation

ABIDe ... has stressed on creation of a structure that would become the local planning authority for the city and the metropolitan region. Besides this ABIDe’s focus of citizen centric governance has been further enhanced by the proposal of a comprehensive development and co-ordinated execution of developmental projects. See: ABIDe presents Governance Bill

 

PS: Communication from Rajeev C's office along with the draft. Should be available on ABIde website as well.

 

Sub. :  Draft Governance Legislation for Bengaluru City

On behalf of Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP and Convener – ABIDe Task Force, I am enclosing herewith the proposed draft legislation for Bengaluru City, tentatively titled Bengaluru Region Governance Act, 2009, which is undergoing public consultation currently.  This is intended to supersede the current KMC Act 1976.

The principles used for drafting the act are citizen centricness, enhanced responsiveness, accountability, transparency and institutionalized citizen and neighborhood involvement in the city’s development.

We would be glad to receive your views / comments on the same, if any.

We also request you to widely circulate this document amongst your friends and colleagues in order to ensure greater visibility / awareness and wider feedback.

 

COMMENTS

Have the full draft document

silkboard - 6 February, 2009 - 03:45

Will attach to this post.

Incidentally, tired of waiting to hear more on Kasturirangan lines from ABIDe, I was working on an angry sounding "BDA must go" type post.

Need to read this in detail, and compare with Kasturirangan Co report.

so few reads?

silkboard - 6 February, 2009 - 18:27

These are heavy documents to read, alva!? But one act like this will shape everything else - traffic, water, sanitation, pollution whatever - I will say perhaps everything except power, and perhaps law and order. Not many people take the time to do the reading to help influence these draft legislations.

It might be worth the time to discuss this proposal and see it alongside Kasturi Rangan report.

I read through the document

roshanrk - 8 February, 2009 - 08:49

I read through the document and I'll put down some lay person suggestions/opinions I have. I also have one question (point 4 below) which I'd like some one, with better knowledge of such governance functioning, to provide an answer to. 

1. Section 14 - Wards Committee
Why should around one third of the members of the Ward committee be nominated by the councillor? This gives the councillor power to dole out posts in the ward committee and could be filled up by his men. I'd suggest to form the ward committee out of elected convenors of Neighbourhood committees only along with the councillor as the chairman.
I'd like to understand the advantage of having nominated members in the Ward Committees.
2. Section 29 (1) - Qualification Of Candidate
Does this section say that in a reserved ward, even the Neighborhood Area Committee (NAC) members should be from one of the reserved caste/section of the society? If this is the case, I feel it isn't completely fair. The counicllor will be from the reserved section. The NAC convenor must be open to all caste/community/sections even in a reserved ward. Bangalore as a city has     people from across the country settled here. Reserving convenor post for a SC/ST/OBC might leave out a lot of eligible people    who are involved in community activity. Since the councillor is reserved, I don't think the post of convenor needs to be reserved.
3. Section 30 (1a) - General disqualification for becoming a mayor, councillor or convener
A person convicted and then pardoned is still guilty of the crime. I don't think a pardon must make a persom eligible again for elections. Government of the day has the power to pardon crimes, this could be misused to get convicted people back into the  public life.
4. Section 33 - Powers and functions of the Mayor
What exactly are the powers of the Mayor? What executive powers does the Mayor have? The legislative functions of the council and the functions of the Ward and NAC have been detailed. But the role and power doesn't seem to have been put down in detail.
If the Mayor is directly elected, what is he responsible for and how does the Mayor-Coucil relation function as per this act?

The Section 33 has been

roshanrk - 9 February, 2009 - 18:48

The Section 33 has been lifted directly off the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act So, what is the advantage of electing a Mayor? Is it that he/she is accountable to the people after 5 years? What kind of power would the Mayor have in governing the city? Elected Mayor with no real authority just might be useless. My question really is, would the elected Mayor have power to decide on how the city is governed and not remain just the chairman of the corporation presiding over sessions?

Section 14 - Wards Committee

roshanrk - 10 February, 2009 - 05:20

As per the draft Act, a Ward committee is to be constituted for every ward consisting of the Corporator as the chairman and the Neighborhood Area Committee (NAC) Conveners as the members along with at most 1/3 members nominated by the corporation in consultation with the councillor.

Contrary to the KMC Act 1976, where the Ward Committee members are supposed to be people having knowledge and experience in municipal administration, the draft Act does not mention what kind of people need to be nominated by the corporation. This leaves the decision open to the councillor and could be misused to fill up the Ward committee with favorable to him/her.

Why should the Ward committee have nominated members at all when the other members - elected conveners of NAC - are part of it? If they need nominated members, the Act needs to mention what kind of people with what specific experience could be nominated. Also, in my opinion, the councillor in consultation with other members of Ward committee (NAC conveners) should recommend the nominated members to the corporation.

Good question

idontspam - 9 February, 2009 - 20:24

What exactly are the powers of the Mayor?

Is it defined in some other document of BBMP? Its worth posing this question to ABIDe. You can get their id at Bengaluruvedike site 

My interpretation of this is that the responsibilities of Corporation as a whole is defined in Chapter 5 sections 57-59 of the KMC act. The Mayor as the leader of the corporation is responsible for discharging the responsibilities of the corporation by executing the functions assigned to his role as defined in sec 60 of KMC (sec 33 in the new one). But I would think this association at least needs to be made clear. Or maybe it is somewhere and I havent read it properly.

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