Pre-budget meeting discusses Bengaluru’s needs

BENGALURU: With the Budget session of the state legislature beginning on March 4, Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, ministers Aravind Limbavali, S R Vishwanath, S Suresh Kumar, city MLAs N A Haris, Soumya Reddy, Satish Reddy, K J George, Akhanda Srinivas Murthy and other leaders held a meeting on Friday with BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad and Administrator Gaurav Gupta to discuss Bengaluru’s needs and appropriate fund allocation.

The meeting was held in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council hall, which has not seen any session for almost a year now after the term of the council ended. At the meeting, several issues were discussed on how to increase BBMP’s revenue. The issue of getting more funds sanctioned for the city was also raised. Improving infrastructure, plugging revenue leaks, conversion of B khata to A khata to generate revenue, improving property tax collection under self-assessment scheme, survey of properties not under BBMP’s ambit, improving solid waste management were also discussed.

The meeting also discussed issues like proper management of parks, schools, drains and toilets, completing civic works on priority, taking up road widening under TDR scheme after ironing out all issues, ensuring encroachment-free pedestrian spaces, improving collection of development fee, proper implementation of schemes and programmes, among others.