Residents plan to meet Palike chief as nodal officers fail to hold meets

Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) chief commissioner’s recent order to hold ward committee meetings (WCM) regularly notwithstanding, several nodal officers in various zones have failed to convene the meeting, leaving the activists and residents fuming.
BBMP chief Tushar Giri Nath had issued an order on 15 May, mandating to hold meetings on every first and third Saturday of the month.
While officials in some wards were seen deferring the meetings citing their busy schedule, a few officials have remained unresponsive.
Jyoti, a resident of ward-78, said for the past one year, no meetings were held in her ward. “Our area is facing several issues like poor roads, pavements and streetlights. Now, two RWAs have joined hands to meet the chief commissioner to put pressure on the officials,” she said.
Nalini Iyer of the same ward said residents will meet Giri Nath on Monday to complain about their problems and ask him to make the officer fall in line. “Thippeswami is the nodal officer of our ward and he is evading our calls,” Nalini alleged.
Satish Rao from Indiranagar said the nodal officer defers meetings citing busy schedule. “I do not understand the logic behind engaging the official for other purposes during the time he is supposed to be convening WCM,” Rao said. Nirmala Shekhar from west zone said nodal officers are not serious about the meetings and hence, this problem is recurring.
Sapna Karim of Janaagraha said BBMP should mandate that these nodal officers not be given other assignments during WCMs.