The
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP,
Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation) is in charge of the civic administration of the city.
[30] It was formed in 2007 by merging 100 wards of the erstwhile Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, with the neighbouring 7 City Municipal Councils (CMC), one Town Municipal Council and 110 villages around Bangalore.
[30]Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is run by a city council. The city council comprises elected representatives, called "corporators", one from each of the wards (localities) of the city. Elections to the council are held once every 5 years, with results being decided by
popular vote. A
mayor and
commissioner of the council are also elected through a quota system from a
Scheduled Castes and Tribes candidate or to an
Other Backward Class female candidate. Members contesting elections to the council represent one of more of the state's political parties. However, elections to the newly-created body are yet to be held, due to delays in delimitation of wards and finalising voter lists. There are expected to be about 150 wards, up from the 100 wards of the old Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. Elections are tentatively scheduled to be held in early 2008.
The
Karnataka High Court is the supreme judicial body in Karnataka and is located in Bangalore.
Bangalore's rapid growth has created several problems relating to traffic congestion and infrastructural obsolescence that the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has found challenging to address. A 2003 Battelle Environmental Evaluation System (BEES) evaluation of Bangalore's physical, biological and socioeconomic parameters indicated that Bangalore's water quality and terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystems were close to ideal, while the city's socioeconomic parameters (
traffic,
quality of life) scored poorly.
[31] The BMP has been criticised by the Karnataka High Court, citizens and corporations for failing to effectively address the crumbling road and traffic infrastructure of Bangalore.
[32] The unplanned nature of growth in the city resulted in massive traffic
gridlocks that the municipality attempted to ease by constructing a
flyover system and by imposing one-way traffic systems.
Some of the flyovers and one-ways mitigated the traffic situation moderately but were unable to adequately address the disproportionate growth of city traffic.
[31] In 2005 both the
Central Government and the State Government allocated considerable portions of their annual budgets to address Bangalore's infrastructure.
[33] The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike works with the
Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the
Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) to design and implement civic projects. Bangalore generates about 3,000 tonnes of
solid waste per day, of which about 1,139 tonnes are collected and sent to
composting units such as the Karnataka Composting Development Corporation. The remaining solid waste collected by the
municipality is dumped in open spaces or on roadsides outside the city.
[34]The
Bangalore City Police (BCP) has six geographic zones, includes the Traffic Police, the City Armed Reserve, the Central Crime Branch and the City Crime Record Bureau and runs 86 police stations, including two all-women police stations.
[35] As capital of the state of Karnataka, Bangalore houses important state government facilities such as the Karnataka High Court, the
Vidhana Soudha (the home of the Karnataka state legislature) and
Raj Bhavan (the residence of the Governor of Karnataka). Bangalore contributes two members to India's
lower house of
parliament, the
Lok Sabha, and 24 members to the Karnataka State Assembly.
[36] In 2007, the Delimitation Commission of India reorganised the constituencies based on the 2001
census, and thus the number of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in Bangalore has been increased to 28 and 3 respectively.
[37] These changes will take effect from the next elections.
Electricity in Bangalore is regulated through the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL). Like many cities in India, Bangalore experiences scheduled
power cuts, especially over the summer, to allow electricity providers to meet the consumption demands of households as well as corporations.