Palike top officer will now be ‘chief commissioner’

BENGALURU: To  ensure better administration and implement the new BBMP Act, the state government issued orders on Wednesday that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner will now be called the ‘Chief Commissioner’, and the eight zonal commissioners will start their work from April 1. The order included the names of the zonal commissioners: East Zone — Manoj Jain; West Zone — Basavaraju S; South Zone — Tulasi Madineni; Dasarahalli — Ravindra SG; RR Nagar — B Reddy Shankar Babu; Bommanahalli — Rajendra Cholan; Mahadevapura and Yelahanka — D Randeep.

According to the orders, the special commissioners are the new zonal commissioners, however, all paper communication will be issued only by the chief commissioner. The orders also stated that all work orders will be given as per the new Act, which will continue until there is no contradiction to the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act and rules.

Officials from the urban development department and BBMP explained that it was a step towards making the new BBMP Act a reality, and decentralise the functioning of BBMP. “Until now, everyone used to come to the BBMP head office to get their issues resolved. Now, zonal commissioners will work as BBMP commissioners of their zones, and the post of the BBMP commissioner, until now a post of principal secretary, has also been upgraded to the post of additional chief secretary. Citizens now need not come to the head office or approach the BBMP Commissioner as they used to earlier for every query,” they said.