Bifurcation is not a panacea

The problems Bangalore is facing are less to do with structure or size of the city, but rather of more fundamental issues of planning and institutional performance in terms of contracting and delivering public services. While splitting BBMP into two smaller geographies for better governance is not a bad Idea. But to believe that this is the solution/ panacea to the current governance crisis in Bangalore would be a gross misreading of the problems that exist.

The problems that citizens of Bangalore face are a result of many years of negligence and can only be solved by deep rooted reforms and changes in the way BBMP operates—at the heart of which is lack of planning, non-transparency in contracting and use of public money and assets and inadequate citizen participation. These problems cannot be solved just by simply diving Bangalore into two zones. It is only recently that BBMP jurisdiction got expanded with a similar argument and we must remember that BBMP already has individual wards demarcated for better governance.

These are core issues that confront the city and none of the these issues is likely to be resolved if the city is divided into smaller units as being envisaged. We need to reorganise and reform governance. In every successful modern city, citizens have a very powerful voice in the destiny and direction of development around their homes and places of work. With proper planning and implementation, Bangalore can be managed better and public confidence in administration and governance will naturally increase. This can be happen in the existing BBMP areas as well.

—The author is a member of Parliament and convener, ABIDe Task Force