Rules to prevent footpath encroachment soon: K J George

Bengaluru: Bengaluru city development and city planning minister K.J. George said on Thursday that pedestrians have got less attention due to encroachment and installation of transformers by BESCOM. He was replying to T.A. Saravana of JD(S) on shrinking footpaths due to encroachment.

He said the union government came out with a new legislation on the formation of Town Vending Committees to address this issue. Already, these committees had been formed at the zonal level. The government was yet to form rules which would be done soon.

Mr George ruled out shifting of around 34,000 electric transformers that were found on footpaths in one go and opined that this would result in disruption of power supply in the city. The high court of Karnataka had given a free hand to the BBMP for shifting of transformers without informing BESCOM. However, it cannot be done in the interest of citizens.

Property tax

Replying to Mr Ashwathnarayana on increase in property tax, Mr George said the BBMP had not hiked property tax since last seven years. The tax collection which was Rs 1323 crore in 2013 had now gone up to Rs 1,800 crore thanks to the initiative of the CM. It was true that as many as 4 lakh properties were yet to be brought under tax net and it would be done by holding door to door census across the city.

The previous elected body messed up tax collection and presented a budget without achieving the target. As of today, the BBMP owes Rs 8,000 crore to contractors and others. Now, the local body was busy in resource mobilisation. Replying to Taara Anuradha (BJP), the minister said abandoned quarries would be reclaimed to dump garbage collected from the city.

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