BANGALORE: The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) on Saturday took its first step towards popularising the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), a Union Government scheme for urban renewal, aimed at measures to bring about improvements in the service levels in a financially sustainable manner.

But for Bangaloreans who turned up in varying numbers, big and small, at the 32 public consultation venues, grievances came first.

The corporators and BMP officials had to first address these problems. JNNURM only came next. Yet, at the end of the day, the mission required a lot of explaining and the consultations were apparently inadequate. The BMP had apparently failed to create awareness about the mission before launching the consultation meets.

Of the 63 cities identified across the country under JNNURM, only Bangalore and Mysore figure from Karnataka. For Bangalore, BMP had proposed projects under various sectors, totalling Rs. 14,000 crore for a period of seven years. A City Development Plan (CDP) is to be finalised for this purpose, sent to the nodal agency KUIDFC and forwarded to the Centre for approval. The consultant for BMP is IDECK (Infrastructure Developmental Corporation Karnataka Ltd.).

Improving governance

At the Mayo Hall public consultation meeting, the audience were vocal about improving governance and basic services to the urban poor and infrastructure development of the city. Even as the audience focussed on grievances, Chief Engineer (East) BMP A.K. Gopalaswamy tried to bring them back to JNNURM.

But the grievances continued to pour in. Kathyani Chamaraj, Brigadier Murugai and Dalu spoke about the need for better schools for the poor, the pathetic situation of Shantinagar Hindu cemetery, damaged roads and more. Ishrazi of Citizen Welfare Association of Richmond Town wanted more transparency in the working of BMP.

Objectives

The primary objectives of JNNURM are integrated development of infrastructure services, securing linkages between asset creation and maintenance for long-run projects sustainability, renewal and redevelopment of inner city areas and universalisation of urban services to ensure their availability to the urban poor.

At the Chandra Layout meeting where Mayor Mumtaz Begum visited, Ravindranath, a speaker, wondered why education was not under JNNURM. Another resident B.S. Damodar wanted the wastage of water to be reduced and the unauthorised water connections in slum areas to be removed.

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