Bangalore: The proposal to include Electronics City to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits has evinced a keen interest but a mixed response from various sectors. Techies feel that Electronics City, which is just two kilometres away from BBMP limits, should be under Palike’s jurisdiction for better infrastructure while the Palike feels that it should extend its territory covering this area for better revenue collection. On the other hand, Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA) which is actively involved in all the infrastructure development projects in and around the Electronics City feels they are managing the place better than the city fathers.
Due to rapid development of IT companies in this area, urbanisation has been very fast. Most of the employees who work in Electronics City prefer to stay near their offices, therefore, the population density too is bursting at its seams. On the other hand, the area is facing new problems due to rapid urbanisation.
According to a senior BBMP official, many apartment complexes have come up in Electronics City area with Panchayat approval. They do not follow any standards compared to the apartments in BBMP limits. “Most of the apartments don’t have rain water harvesting systems, so ground water is depleting rapidly,” officials said.
Techies’ stand: Interestingly, many of the techies are also in favour of the area’s inclusion in the BBMP limits.Sathyanarayana, a techie said that when Electronics City was created, it made sense to have it in Anekal Gram Panchayat. But, now that the majority population has been replaced by urban dwellers, it should be under BBMP. He further said tax should be collected by BBMP as 20 per cent of Bangaloreans work at many IT, BT and BPO companies located in Electronics City. The area planning has to come under urban planning and not under the gram panchayats. Moreover, it makes no sense in having Central and state government programmes like MNREGA for Electronics City limits since most of the people living here are fruitfully employed. The planning required for urban and rural areas are totally different, so will be the budget allocation.
BBMP’s point: The Opposition leader in the Council, M K Gunashekar had also sought the BBMP to adopt a resolution for including Electronics City and Bengaluru International Airport in its jurisdiction which would bring in the much-needed revenue for the financially-starved Palike. In fact, BBMP has written many letters to the state government to include Electronics City under its limits as it claimed that this region had several under developed areas but the proposal is still pending before the Urban Development Department.
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