BENGA
LURU: Ward committees which were put in place to ensure citizens have a say in the development of their neighbourhood seem to be functioning miserably.
Data accessed by TOI show that in the last 14 months, over 60% of 198
ward panels
held less than five meetings, though the mandate is that they should meet at least once every month.
Twenty-three of the ward committees haven't met even once since their constitution. Violations pertaining to ward committee meetings cut across party lines and are uniformly spread across all eight zones of Bengaluru, sources said.
Much dilly-dallying had gone into setting up the ward committees. It was only in the later part of 2018 that the
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike
constituted ward panels for all 198 wards. The move followed sustained campaign by citizen activists and directives from the high court. From December 2018, the civic agency started posting regular updates about the monthly meetings of ward panels on its website.
Data show that only three ward committees hold the distinction of having conducted all 14 monthly meetings. Two of these wards are represented by
Congress (namely Kadugondanahalli and Devara Jeevanahalli) and one by BJP (HSR Layout).
'No lessons learnt' RTI activist Puneeth T, who has been monitoring ward panel developments, said, "It looks like the panels were formed only for namesake without any effort to ensure their effective functioning. This, despite courts repeatedly giving a rap to the civic body on the issue." Puneeth, who is also the founder of Citizen's Action, an NGO, said in 2018, the court even fined the city mayor for not constituting a ward committee. "But no lessons seem to have been learnt. Both corporators and BBMP should become more responsible and accountable to ensure ward committees function properly," he added.
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