Janaagraha to take budget inputs from people

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Janaagraha came together to launch ‘MyCityMyBudget – Nanna Nagara Nanna Budget, Citizen Participation in BBMP Budget 2022-23’ campaign at the BBMP Head Office on Wednesday.

After flagging off the campaign and the budget bus, BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said that Bengaluru is far more participatory when compared to other cities.

“BBMP ward committee meetings are being conducted regularly. The BBMP released `60 lakh to each of the 198 ward committees for the firsttime last year. Participatory budgeting initiatives such as MyCityMyBudget should become a nationwide movement. When citizens participate in budgets, they understand the processes as well as complexities. This will in turn help in prioritizing on how we can solve civic issues, using the existing budget.” Gupta said.

“We invite citizens to submit their budget inputs online by visiting www.mycitymybudget.in or through the budget bus which will visit all the wards in the coming days,” he added.

“Every year, BBMP invites citizens to participate in making our city budget. Very few cities in India do this. Janaagraha is proud to be a partner in this effort, ensuring voices from all sections are being heard and actionable inputs are provided to BBMP in time. More than 40 citizen groups come together to make this happen in their localities. Last year, in a historic move, BBMP entrusted ward committees with 60L budget to make local decisions. This opened up new frontiers of citizen participation in many wards, where citizens collaborated with BBMP to identify footpaths that needed to be fixed. This year, the focus will continue to be on footpaths, public toilets and parks. We hope to see a positive difference in the quality of footpaths and toilets and parks this year,” opined Srinivas Alavilli, Head-Civic Participation, Janaagraha.

Sapna Karim, Head-Civic Participation, Janaagraha, said “BBMP made a pioneering start last year by setting budgets for Ward Committees to utilize. A first in the country, I am sure. It is heartening to note the BBMP’s commitment to continue participatory budgeting and strengthen Ward Committees by launching MyCityMyBudget for the 6th year running. Citizens and community groups have been of great support, and clearly history is being written on local governance and citizen engagement in our city!”

Ward committee members from five different wards (Varthuru, Banaswadi, Gottigere, Radhakrishna, Sanjayangar) presented walkability reports from their ward and how they plan to use the 20L funds for footpath improvements to the Chief Commission on this occasion. “People need good walkable footpaths. We have participated in the walkability survey and identified areas that are challenging for pedestrians to walk. We request BBMP to ensure Bengaluru becomes a safe place for citizens,” said Geetha Gooty, Ward Committee member from Sanjayanagar.

“Varthuru is a huge ward, we need more funds allocated to the ward committee to meet all our needs,”said Jagadish Reddy from Varthur. Lalitha said, “We need more focus on making our footpaths walkable and in ward committee, we are able to identify problem areas and find solutions locally.”