As the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) gets ready to present its budget at the end of this month for financial year 2019-20, before the Model Code of Conduct kicks in, here are some of the big misses from the budgetary promises made in the previous year.
Safety kit for pourakarmikas— While pourakarmikas work tirelessly to keep the city clean and presentable, they are being denied their fair share. The promise of safety kits is yet to be fulfilled and they are also forced to sit in protests for timely disbursement of wages.
Free WiFi— The BBMP had announced that free Wi-Fi will be provided in Bengaluru with assistance from the state government in 400 hotspots across the city. While the project has seen many false starts in the past, there has been some movement with a pilot project started in Ganganagar ward.
ABC and Kennel— Even though there were an alarming number of dog bite cases and even death of minors, BBMP did not live up to its promise of not downsizing the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme and of setting up kennels at Panathur in Mahadevepura zone and at Halasuru Veterinary Hospital in East zone.
Waste segregation and decentralisation of waste management— Despite many warnings by the Karnataka High Court, the BBMP has failed to segregate waste at source after multiple attempts. It continues to dump significant amount of mixed waste at landfills. However, for the next financial year, it has issued fresh tenders for collection of dry and wet waste separately.
Rainwater harvesting— While the budget speech did have mention of adopting a prudent rainwater harvesting programme within the city and making it mandatory and construction of rainwater harvesting pits in all types of drains constructed by the Palike, there has been no action on the ground.
There is also no account of Rs 5 crore earmarked for constructing pits in parks around the city for the same purpose.
Tree plantation— Last year’s budget had earmarked Rs 1 crore to plant 200 saplings with tree guards and another Rs 45 crore was kept aside for enhancing greenery in the city, but no progress has been made in this regard. The long-awaited tree census has also been a non-starter.
Helipads— The BBMP had promised to build eight helipads— one in all the zones and had earmarked Rs 5 crore for the first phase for this purpose. However, BBMP officials say no work has begun on this front.