Bengaluru is a city with lots happening. Some common issues relevant to both Bengaluru and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have been lakes, trees, solid waste management, ward committees, water and more.
The Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party (BNP), a unique political party with an exclusive focus on Bengaluru and BBMP, is launching a special series of online knowledge sessions starting today. Eminent practitioners and experts from diverse fields will speak about how governance in the city can be improved.
Read more: BNP, AAP bring issues of transparency, governance, to BBMP poll debate
BNP’s knowledge series is called “BELIEF” — BNP Enabling Learning In Each Function of BBMP — which has eight sessions lined up throughout April on weekends.
Date: Saturdays & Sundays of April
Time: 6:00 PM onwards on Zoom
Register here: https://nammabnp.org/events.php
The objective of these knowledge sessions is to disseminate knowledge about the various functions of BBMP to Bengalureans, get inputs from experts in relevant areas for BNP to help build knowledge and manifestos, engage with more citizens to enlist their support over a period of time, and create civic awareness among the citizens.
About the sessions
The eight sessions will take place on weekends throughtout April from 6:00 – 7:30 PM on Zoom. More details about the sessions is shared in this poster:
About the speakers
The speakers have been closely associated with BBMP and have helped draft the BBMP Act, brought ward committees to Bengaluru, dissected BBMP projects and finances, ran election campaigns in BBMP elections and so on.
- Session 1: A brief history of Bengaluru will orient listeners to the rich and varied history of our city over the past centuries, as it was conceived by Nada Prabhu. Naresh Narasimhan will deliver this session.
- Session 2: Envisioning Bengaluru will take the audience through the administrative evolution of our city’s governance structure from the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act through the present BBMP Act. Former member of BBMP restructuring committee, Ravichandar V, will be delivering this session.
- Session 3 and 4: These two sessions will equip the audience to understand how to engage in the framework of urban governance and what laws enable citizen participation. A detailed analysis of the ward’s physical structure and mapping of amenities will also be provided. It will be delivered jointly by CIVIC founder, Kathyayini Chamaraj and Sensing Local founder, Sobia Rafiq.
- Session 5: This session will engage the audience on how to run successful political campaigns so that electoral support can be mobilised. A wide spectrum of successful campaigners will be conversing with our Nava Yuva founder Rishvanjas Raghavan.
- Session 6: This session will showcase our analytical capabilities in the field of municipal finance. One part of the session will focus on revenue, taxes and budgeting aspects while the second will take the listener through the exercise of using our citizen portal to understand how various projects at the ward level are financed and executed. It will be jointly delivered by Sanjay Mehrotra and Srikanth Narasimhan
- Session 7: In this session former BBMP commissioner, K Jairaj, will take the listeners through the nuts and bolts of the bureaucracy of urban governance. The administrative structure of the BBMP, its official framework and its workings will be explained in a manner that can be easily understood by any non-expert.
- Session 8: This is a new feature of this series where the general secretary of the party, Srikanth Narasimhan, will converse with two prominent change makers and successful entrepreneurs, Hema Hattangady and Renuka Ramnath, on how the strength of their conviction took them through difficult phases of their work and enabled them to win over odds.
[This article is based on a press release by Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party (BNP), and has been published with minimal edits.]
