The Hindu : Karnataka News : ‘Contact Points’ to help citizens

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 31, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

‘Contact Points’ to help citizens

Ravi Sharma

BBMP is preparing plans to amend building bylaws

Each ‘Contact Point’ will cover 4,000 households
Only empanelled architects can recommend building plans

Bangalore: With the twin intentions of reducing “red tapism, lack of openness and collusion” that exists in ward offices and serving the people better, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to set up new units called “BBMP Contact Points.”

The move, which is a tacit admittance that the ward offices are not effectively addressing civic problems, will be located across the city with each contact point covering 4,000 households.

BBMP Commissioner S. Subramanya told The Hindu that small offices, each manned by five BBMP functionaries, would be set up at various points in the city. Citizens can approach these offices for issues such as birth and death certifi cates, property tax, drains, garbage disposal, horticulture and parks. They can even apply for a khata certificate at these points.

“The idea is to make things as transparent as possible and also make officials more assessable to the public,” he said.

Besides addressing the civic problems, the assessment officer from each of these contact points will on a daily basis go around his jurisdictional area keeping an eye on the 4,000 buildings for any building activity, violations, inspect the roads and drains, etc. The officer will digitally film the day’s activities.

According to the commissioner, the filming on a daily basis will give the BBMP “a permanent repository of what is happening in which area around the year.” The unit will have a solid waste management officer.

Mr. Subramanya said that no new recruitments would be made to man these contact points. “The BBMP has 17,000 employees. There will only be a redistribution of employees,” he said.

Amendment proposed

Though the contact points will serve to open up the system, the BBMP is planning a monitoring system that will check violations of building bylaws and sanctioned plan. With this in mind, the BBMP is planning to have the building bylaws amended so that only architects who have been empanelled by the BBMP will be able to recommend building plans.

Only after the plan has been verified, certified and recommended by the architect can it be sent to the BBMP for formal sanction. Any architect can seek to be empanelled.

Sources said that the move is meant not only to break the collusion that exists in the BBMP but is also a part of the BBMP’s plans to shift emphasis from cursory internal scrutiny to self-certification and closer scrutiny at the time of the building’s construction.

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