Filling up potholes and building more green cover for the city is on top of the agenda for the new Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad, who took charge on Monday.
Mr. Prasad is a 1994 batch IAS officer. Among other postings, he has served as private secretary to Mamata Banerjee in 2008 when she was the Railway Minister. He discussed his priorities for the city during an interview with The Hindu .
What is your priority for the city?
Filling potholes before the monsoon begins. A concerted effort to revive the green cover that the city seems to have lost over the years. This summer has been the worse yet, and was worse because of lesser trees and more concrete buildings.
How do you intend to tackle the garbage issue?
One of my main agendas is to provide a clean environment.
Having lived in this city all my life, I am well aware of how garbage has become a burning issue. However, I have no official experience on this and have felt about it like a citizen, not as an official.
Citizens are complaining about the increase in property tax.
Taxes have been increased legally and there is no intention of interfering in this process. However, I will make sure that complaints about technical glitches and the process of payments are addressed.
However, more revenue must come in through this source and defaulting on tax must not be allowed.
Are you aware that the public grievance redressal system does not work properly?
It will be re-designed to function in a decentralised format.
Zone-wise issues must be resolved at the same level. For all this to happen, more attention will be paid to technical issues and improvements will be made .
