8 BBMP zones to 10: Smaller the better

Bengaluru: Some of the key criteria followed on deciding the 10 zones of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were population, population growth, area, balancing the load in terms of property taxes, asset management, and the desire to ensure that an assembly constituency fell within a single zone. 

Civil evangelist and a member of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Restructuring Committee V. Ravichandar  said that 10 zones instead of eight is a decentralisation, administration reform move that should help citizens access BBMP departments more effectively for addressing their needs. He took out an example of food court service to explain how increasing zones by 25% (from 8 to 10 zones) will help by comparing them with people waiting to be served at a food court.  “One can always expect better service when the customer numbers waiting at a food court are fewer. Customers will get better service if there are say eight people waiting to be served instead of, say 10 customers,” he explained. Finally, the proof of the pudding will be based on actual experience on the ground with the new zones, particularly in terms of travel times to zonal offices, availability of officials and their responsiveness. 

Mr Ravichandar said there will be a need for more resources and effort needs to be made on the quality of the manpower too. 

A citizen-centric mindset in BBMP officials needs to be nurtured and training sessions may be required as the changes are put into place. 

Welcoming the move, urban expert R.K. Misra said, “In the earlier system, some zones had two assembly constituencies, while some even had eight in one zone. Administration was getting difficult and people were forced to travel a lot to get their work done at the zone office.”

He, however, insisted that the BBMP should ensure that the zones are not understaffed and that they have quality staff. “It would be better if the position of the joint commissioner is given to the IAS cadre as they have better administrative capacity. Also, each zone should have quality staff right from the engineers. Usually, we see the capable staff being posted only in the core zones, while the ones in the other zones being filled those with not much experience,” he said.