In January 2014 the Government of Karnataka set up the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) for Bengaluru Metropolitan Area. This was 22 years after the 74th CAA, giving constitutional powers to municipalities, was passed in the parliament. The BDA has been proposed as its secretariat. The BDA only does land use planning and development. The growth of the city, both population and economy, needs us to focus on the larger Bengaluru Metropolitan Region.
The Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) is an Authority established under the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority Act, 1985 (Karnataka Act №39 of 1985). It was setup for the purposes of planning, coordinating and supervising the proper and orderly development of the area within the Bangalore Metropolitan Region. The BDA has been left out of the jurisdiction of the BMRDA. Section 6(1) of the Act proposes an executive committee which is like the MPC.
The 12th Schedule of the Constitution contains powers, authorities, and responsibilities for local bodies like the BMRDA. It is well known that some of the items in the 12th Schedule like water supply, fire, planning for economic and social development, urban planning etc. don't rest with the BMRDA. The Act has got around this by proposing a committee consisting of all these parastatals and grants the powers to these parastatals to exercise the authority of the BMRDA in addition to their own. So, by leaving out BDA from its jurisdiction, BMRDA is reneging on its responsibilities. The Act gives the Metropolitan commissioner the privileges to attend meetings of BDA, BWSSB, KEB & KSRTC. The latter 2 bodies have since been split further. This section of the act makes the BMRDA secondary to the parastatals.
There is a need to synchronize the functioning of MPC with the BMRDA instead of with the BDA. The MPC and the BMRDA together need to be given the powers to execute on all the items in the 12th Schedule and not just land use planning. The fact that the MPC has met only twice since its formation, 4 years ago, is a testament to this fact. The second time was to pass the BDA master plan. It follows then, that it also needs to plan the budgets for these organisations and make the relevant allocations. The state government continues to budget and fund the parastatals like BWSSB, BDA etc completely bypassing the BMRDA.
Recently, the Government of Karnataka made an announcement to set up a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA). While the bill is being drafted it pays to avoid some of the problems noted above. In order for the UMTA to be effective, it needs to exist under the BMRDA. This will allow the UMTA to coordinate transportation plans and execution for the entire BMRDA region. It should not become another parastatal funded directly by the State Government. The BMRDA act should allow the institution to work as a secretariat to the MPC before the UMTA is hooked to it. BMRDA should fund all parastatals working in this region instead of the state funding them directly.
The State Finance Commissions (SFC) have been more comfortable devolving funds to Rural bodies under 243(I) of the Constitution. They have ignored devolutions of funds to Urban Local Bodies (ULB) under 243(Y) on basis of the 12th schedule. Fragmentation of the functions between the ULB and the parastatals makes it difficult to arrive at proper budgets. BMRDA should ask for an appropriate share of the tax monies from the SFC after reorganisation. This is true devolution in line with the constitutional provisions granted by the 74th CAA. Empowering ULB's and funding them right is the first step in fixing our infrastructure. Everything else is band aid and will fall apart very soon. The 28 MLA's in the city would do well to fix these issues at the Assembly rather than fixing drains and roads.