Bengaluru: The IT city's civic body, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has mortgaged key buildings in the city over the past five years to get loans of over Rs 1600 crore. Some of these include historic structures, and even one of the BBMP's own offices.
The iconic Krishna Rajendra Market, the Kempegowda museum, the public utility building on MG Road, the Mayo Hall building have been mortgaged by the city's civic body. The civic body was paying Rs 1 crore everyday just to service its massive debt.
Kumar Pushkar, Special Commissioner of finance, said, "Even today we have pending bills of Rs 2000 crore."
The BBMP has pledged its buildings for a whopping Rs 1,645 crore loan. Activists said that the civic body's finances are in shambles
Professor Ashwin Mahesh, Urban Affairs expert, said, "Why don't you simply collect the property tax from every building in the city? If you did that, you will get the money you are trying to get by pledging properties. The short fall in property tax collection is estimated between Rs 1600 and Rs 2000 crore every year."
The BBMP's finances are so messed up that civic activists had actually said a couple of years ago that BBMP's own officials did not know how many bank accounts the corporation has. Recently, they have identified 900 accounts in different banks in different zones and now an effort is on to close at least 400 of them..
The city's Town Hall barely escaped mortgage in 2015 after the Chief Minister intervened. And despite the loans and mortgages, the civic body is still broke.
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