BBMP Budget 2022-23 put off, no clarity on new date

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Budget 2022-23, which was scheduled to be presented Wednesday, was put off at the last minute after a group of ministers expressed their displeasure over the perceived allocation of funds to the constituencies represented by those who defected from Congress. The BBMP is yet to announce a new date for the presentation of the budget.
The ministers had also demanded another round of discussion with the city ministers, especially Minister for Revenue R Ashok, Minister for Higher Education C N Ashwath Narayan and the Minister for Excise K Gopalaiah. Sources said that the disgruntled ministers were unhappy with the top officials of the BBMP for having failed to take Ashok and Narayan into confidence before allocating the funds.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who also holds the Bengaluru development portfolio, directed BBMP administrator Rakesh Singh, BBMP chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta, and special commissioner (Finance) Thulasi Maddineni to discuss the allocations following which a meeting was held on Tuesday.
The three BBMP officials did not respond to the multiple calls but sources said that a few suggestions made during the meeting were to be incorporated into the budget.
Meanwhile, the annual participatory budgeting campaign, MyCityMyBudget, run by the BBMP in collaboration with NGO Janaagraha and community organisations, which was launched on February 23, received 7,238 inputs from citizens. As many as 3,290 inputs were received about public toilets (46 per cent), 2,188 for footpath improvements (30 per cent) and 1,760 inputs for parks (24 per cent).
Among these categories, “new footpaths” has received the most number of inputs, for parks, the “lack of playing and gym equipment” appears to be an oft-repeated issue and under the public toilets inputs, the lack of such facilities and public urination were the main issues flagged.
Srinivas Alavilli, the head of Civic Participation at Janaagraha, said, “Budget allocations to ward committees is a brand new chapter in participatory budgeting and we are pleased to see deep and meaningful engagement of citizens to make their wards better. Local issues are best resolved locally with empowered ward committees and we are hopeful that BBMP will continue to devolve funds to ward level and focus on fixing issues brought forth in this process.”
The top three wards that provided budget inputs are Shantala Nagara, Ramamurthy Nagara, and Sanjay Nagara and the top three zones that received budget inputs are East, South, and Bommanahalli.
BBMP in its Budget 2021-22 allocated Rs 60 lakh per ward towards footpaths, mending potholes and creating borewells.