• Janaagraha on India Together
    • This is not a dream
    Ramesh Ramanathan points out how the virtuous cycle of increased revenues needs to be built up for Bangalore city - by bringing the citizen into the heart of the city's functioning.
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    Bangaloreans together

    Report card: Janaagraha
    Dec-May 2002
    • This year, Bangalore's 100 wards have Rs.38 crores worth of maintenance works.
    • 65 wards participated in Janaagraha
    • Rs.150 crores works identified
    • 32 wards were actively engaged
    • Rs.120 crores worth of works looked at by these wards
    • Rs.10 crores worth of works prioritized by citizens, represented in 22 wards
    • Rs.5 crores works directly identified by citizens
    • Rs.5 crores identified in consultation with corporators
    • In ward 67, slum residents (Shastri Nagar) and upper income people came together
    • One in Twenty Bangaloreans have endorsed Janaagraha

    Source: Janaagraha

    Resources
    • Janagraha Times
    • A map that will help you find which WARD you are in and who are your Corporators
    Contact
    Janaagraha
    198, Nandidurg Road
    Jayamahal
    Bangalore - 560 046
    Tel: +91-80-3542977, 3542381, 3542382
    Fax: +91-80-3542966
    E-mail: janaagraha@vsnl.net
    May 2002: The Bangalore Budget for 2002-03 has been approved, and all the machinery for implementing it will soon go into motion. For those of us Bangaloreans who have participated in the Janaagraha campaign for citizen participation in ward works, the report card for our effort is also public now. The Standing Committee for Works has approved the Programme of Works in a few days and the results are up for everyone to take note of.

    The larger issue is this: all the budgets - Union, State and City - attract a lot of press coverage when they are announced. You might have also noticed that soon after the budget has been released, there is feedback from the public. An 'instant' reaction, within 24 hours! I wonder how many people actually had the chance to examine the budget, go through the document and reach an informed conclusion. First of all, you cannot get your hands on a budget document so easily. Especially on the day of the budget being announced. Then, you need help in understanding this document, because otherwise you may as well be given the technical manual to pilot a space ship. Written in Russian.

    So, what exactly is the value of this? Should we not be discussing the budget BEFORE it is announced, rather than trying to read all those boring government documents AFTER they have been announced, and then commenting on some relatively unimportant aspect of the budget, saying, "We should be getting more money for parks in each ward". This is when the total park expenditure adds up to only a few crores, while the total budget is over Rs. 930 crores.

    Perhaps a large number of those who took part in the Janaagraha campaign, over the past few months, are just about beginning to scratch the surface of understanding this very important document called the Budget. Even here, the focus has been on only one item of the budget, called Ward Works. This itself has taken an enormous effort from hundreds of people and many man hours.

    I say it is time to demystify this document. Discuss it before it comes out, understand where the money comes from, and where it goes. How much of this expenditure is uncontrollable, like salaries and electricity bills, and how much of it can be actually channelised. Have open house debates about it, with the Corporators and the BMP administration.

    The key document produced by the BMP (Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) is the budget. But honestly, how many of us have read enough about this year's BMP Budget beyond the few days of press coverage? How much time did we personally spend in trying to understand the BMP budget this year? Possibly not even three hours, the time it takes for a matinee show. At the same time, we ponder over our own personal finances: how to manage our money, how to make every rupee count. Remember - the BMP budget of Rs. 930 crores is our money too! So, the next time you go over a pothole, remember that maybe the answer lies in getting more involved in the BMP Budget.

    Why should citizen participation happen through the budget?

    • The total amount of funds required to transform Bangalore is about Rs 2,500 crores: our roads, drains, sewage systems etc. Assuming that this will take 5 years to do, we are talking roughly Rs 500 crores every year.

    • The current core revenues of the city are barely Rs 400 crores, taking property taxes and other items into consideration.

    • The core expenditures of the BMP are around Rs 250- 300 crores, just for the salaries and electricity bills, etc. In addition, interest expenditure on borrowings is already Rs 100 crores, leaving no surplus from the organic revenues. Where are the additional funds going to come from? Should the BMP be raising new taxes to generate additional resources? Before we rush into a 'supply-side' solution, let us take a step back and assess the situation.

    • Bangalore has about 50 lakh residents, translating to about 10 lakh families. Assuming that 30% live in slums, we still have 7 lakh families in Bangalore. Assuming once more that 25% of these live in joint families, we should still have 5.25 lakh residential properties in the city. There are at least as many commercial properties, adding up to a total of about 10 lakh taxable properties in the city.

    • The BMP currently gets its property taxes from about 4 lakh properties. The BMP's tax-net therefore covers only about 40% of the potential tax-base. Given that property taxes are currently about Rs 175 crores, we could still generate an additional Rs 250 crores from this item alone, WITHOUT raising tax rates, or levying new taxes.

    • There are many such items like building licenses, advertisement taxes, parking fees etc. where the BMP can generate additional funds.

    With all this potential, the key question therefore is: "Why are all citizens not paying their fair share?" The answer: citizens do not have faith in the system. They do not see the money working for them. When the citizens are taken into confidence, when they participate in - for example- determining how the ward works will be allocated, they see their money working for them. As more citizens see that their money is actually making a difference in their neighbourhoods, as they can track the money and how it is used, their confidence in the system increases. As they see that the additional funds are being used to build infrastructure that they have identified, they take ownership over their city, over public assets.

    Citizens become partners in the solution, dramatically simplifying the job of the administration and elected representatives. This is how the virtuous cycle of increased revenues needs to be built up - by bringing the citizen into the heart of the BMP's functioning, by making the process of financial functioning transparent, by bringing the voice of the citizen into the budget. This is not a dream. Just a clear, organised vision of the future. It is in our capacity to make this a reality.

    Ramesh Ramanathan
    Campaign Coordinator, Janaagraha

    Material for this article was taken from two successive editions of Janaagraha times, published by VOICES, Bangalore. Published with permission.

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