Bengaluru: Two of Karnataka’s most populous and industrial cities—Bengaluru and Mysuru—remain without an elected city council, depriving nearly half of Karnataka’s urban population of access to the first layer of governance, a new report has shown.
Other city councils continue to see their powers stripped away, leaving them merely as “implementing agencies” as the state government tightens its grip on all layers of administration, the report by the civic advocacy group Janaagraha has noted.
Released Sunday, the report, ‘A critical review of decentralized participatory governance in cities of Karnataka’, has shown an “average delay of 22 months in elections to municipal corporations’”
“City governments do not have a role or control over 15 of the 18 functions of local governance mandated by the Constitution (sic),” it stated.
The report has also stated that 10 of the 11 city corporations in Karnataka have no operational ward committees.
“Our cities are rapidly growing, but our governance structures are decaying. Unless we establish a new normal about this third tier (ward committees), all the small changes will not alter the fundamental reality of the situation,” said National Law School of India University vice-chancellor Sudhir Krishnaswamy.
Bengaluru, the state’s growth engine contributing nearly half of the state’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), has been without an elected city council for 47 months, i.e., roughly four years; Tumakuru for 12 months; and Mysuru and Shivamogga for nine months.
The responsibility then falls on the already-overburdened state government, fueling the degradation in the quality of life for a population that, ironically, migrates to cities searching for a better life and opportunities.
According to projections, Karnataka’s urban population will grow to 34 million by 2031, up from 29 million in 2021.
The situation is no different in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and other urban centres, where floods, growing congestion, an increase in pollution, eroding green cover, excessive concretization, and other such factors lend to a degradation in the quality of life.
“Karnataka, which was a leading state in decentralised local governance in the 1980s, has seen a gradual decline over the decades,” said Santosh Naragund, the head of the participative governance wing of Janaagraha.
The lack of an elected council adds to the growing gap between the population and the policy-makers, with ministers taking control and delegating the implementation of programmes, projects, and other solutions, if any, with lower accountability.
The term of the council of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) ended in September 2020, and there have since been few or no grievance redressal mechanisms to cope with the growing problems.
“MLAs from all parties are delaying the elections as they fear losing some of their power to corporators. We have no confidence that the BBMP elections will be held even this year,” a former BJP corporator and party office bearer said.
Bengaluru is home to over one-quarter of the state’s 70 million population. Its residents have been left without a city council amid the flooding in 2022, crumbling infrastructure, and big-ticket projects that remain more on paper than have any real impact. Multiple stretches of the Metro are long-delayed, and the ongoing construction has added to traffic congestion.
The suburban rail network project has barely moved on the ground while the public bus fleet remains stagnant, forcing a higher reliance on private vehicles. At last count, Bengaluru had roughly 1.1 crore vehicles on its roads, adding to the congestion.
“Bengaluru’s traffic infrastructure is crumbling down with every passing day. Data indicates that the average daily traffic congestion length in the city has surged to 1,638 km as of August—nearly four times higher than in January 2024. This is a clarion call for all of us to come together & address this on a war footing…,” Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya posted on ‘X’ Friday.
The traffic density and poor infrastructure, especially in the tech corridors, have been flagged multiple times by several associations but to no avail.
The Outer Ring Road Companies Association, or ORRCA, have made multiple requests, calling for “urgent attention”. In a post on ‘X’, ORRCA said, “We urge all relevant authorities to prioritise infrastructure maintenance and upgradation works, including road repairs, pothole filling, waterlogging solutions, footpath and service road upkeep, flyover micro-surfacing, and storm water drain clearance….”
Amid this chaos, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has proposed projects such as the underground tunnel to connect Hebbal and Silk Board, two of the most dreaded chokepoints in the city, by spending roughly Rs 13,000 crore.
“BBMP can’t fix Bengaluru’s roads or waterlogging but has paid ₹4.7 cr to Altinok Consultants for a detailed project report (DPR) on an 18-km tunnel road that remains hidden (sic)…,” Bengaluru Central BJP MP P.C. Mohan posted on ‘X’, with a video of a flooded underpass.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)