In a first, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) budget, for 2020-21, will be presented on Monday through videoconference.
Though the State government had permitted the BBMP to present the much-delayed budget online, and the budget session was to be streamed live from the head office to all the eight zonal offices, owing to space constraints, a few zonal offices have hired conference halls in hotels where the budget will be screened live.
According to senior officials, apart from the councillors and nominated councillors, city MLAs, MLCs, and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members are members of the BBMP and can attend the budget session.
“Accommodating all the councillors of wards coming under a particular zone, along with the nominated members, MLAs, MLCs, MPs, zonal officials, and mediapersons, while ensuring social distance is difficult. That apart, we have to ensure that the video that is streamed live is visible to all and the audio is clear. It was owing to such technical difficulties that the budget session has been shifted to hotels and auditorium for five zones,” said an official.
The budget session forthree zones – Dasarahalli, Rajarajeshwarinagar and Bommanahalli – will be held in the respective zonal offices, while other locations have been chosen for the remaining zones.