Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal, a newsletter on Indian politics. To get it in your inbox every Monday, sign up here (click on “follow”). Have feedback, interesting links or examples of good or bad urban governance in your city? Send them to [email protected]
As Bengaluru has seen unprecedented floods over the past week, the situation was greatly exacerbated by the fact that the city does not have an elected government. The term of the previous elected Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike council ended in 2020 and the body is currently run by bureaucrats appointed by the state government.
“The fact that bureaucrats and not elected officials currently head the BMPP Is a major reason why the city lacks accountability in tackling floods and other urban issues,” argued Tara Krishnaswamy, founder of the advocacy group, Citizens for Bengaluru.
Bengaluru is one of the world’s major cities. The Greater Bengaluru region has a population of more than eight million, about as many people as live in Switzerland. That it does not have an elected government is, in a word, astounding and points to what is probably India’s single biggest governance flaw: weak, almost non-existent independent urban governance.
Urbs prima?
India has an urban population of 675 million. By itself, this number is greater than the…
