Bengaluru, 11 Oct 

The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) is unconstitutional, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya said on Saturday. It goes against the 74th Amendment of the Constitution, he said. 

“It is a prime example of Maximum Government, Minimum Governance, bureaucratic redtapism and centralisation,” he said at panel discussion on the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act at Bengaluru International Centre (BIC) on Friday. 

The GBA had held its first meeting on Friday, chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The BJP, however, boycotted the event and did not attend, with leaders questioning how the Chief Minister could be made to helm the body and the government’s preparedness for the civic body elections. 

“The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) is a top-down approach, rather than a bottom-up, citizen-centric one,” Surya said. “The inclusion of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister in the GBA, instead of a directly elected and empowered mayor, raises further concerns. A similar model with multiple corporations failed in Delhi.”

He said that the model would likely lead to financial discrepancies between municipal corporations. 

On Friday, the government had allocated Rs 613 crore to construct offices for the five new corporations, while Rs 30 crore had been allocated for GBA operations.