Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday announced that the division of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will be completed by September 15, following which the Greater Bengaluru Authority will be established.
Speaking at a press conference after a meeting on the proposed Greater Bengaluru Authority, Shivakumar said the proposal will be discussed with the opposition.
“We will discuss this with the Leader of the Opposition and other MLAs. We will take a final decision after taking everyone’s opinions and placing it before the Cabinet,” he said.
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The senior Congress leader confirmed that the state government had issued a notification to convert BBMP into the Greater Bengaluru Authority on May 15 and that the formation of new corporations under the new authority would take place within 120 days.
“We have to set up the new corporations within 120 days. We will take feedback from the MLAs on the number of corporations and their contours,” he said.
The Deputy Chief Minister also addressed the issue of street vendors, announcing a phased eviction from the pavements. “We have decided to evict all street vendors from the pavements. Till now, 27,665 street vendors have registered and we will be issuing them push carts. The registered vendors have to do business in designated areas. As many as 3,755 vendors have sought push carts,” he said.
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“Some vendors are trying to put pressure on us through MLAs, but we can’t allow that as per the law. We will carry out the eviction in phases even if we are not able to do it all at once,” he added.
On infrastructure development, Shivakumar said that road widening projects will be carried out along stormwater drains and that MLAs had been consulted. “We have discussed the road widening with MLAs. We will issue TDRs to landowners wherever the MLAs recommend land acquisition,” he said.
Shivakumar further said that the government had identified areas for development of 300 km of roads along the buffer zones of stormwater drains. Many MLAs have suggested to the government that optical fibre cables be laid through the sewage lines. “I have instructed the BBMP to remove such cables. We have also instructed the desilting of sewage lines,” he said.
Highlighting efforts to bring transparency to property registration and tax collection, Shivakumar said the government had instructed officials to convert 25 lakh accounts into e-accounts. “We have completed the digitisation of 5 lakh accounts till now. We are trying to bring transparency in property registration and tax collection. This initiative has received a national e-governance award.”
He also addressed public complaints regarding abandoned vehicles, saying, “We have received a lot of complaints about old vehicles being abandoned and parked on roadsides. We have instructed the police to create a dumping yard for such vehicles on 100-acre land.”
To improve traffic movement, the government will merge service and main roads wherever metro construction is ongoing. “We will merge the service roads and main roads wherever metro work is going on to ease traffic movement. This initiative will be taken up in 40-50 km of arterial roads. The MLAs have agreed to this move,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
