The city has a new mayor in D. Venkatesh Murthy and a new deputy mayor in L. Srinivas. Declared elected on Thursday . Mr Murthy made a slew of promises, chief among them being to keep the city clean and establish a mayor control room with dedicated staff to deal with the people's problems.

Addressing a joint press conference with the deputy mayor, the mayor acknowledged that the city was weighed under problems relating to its water supply, sewerage network and garbage disposal, but promised to make sincere efforts to solve them. "The BBMP was not able to float garbage tenders for the last two years, but now the garbage menace will be solved with the help of the high court verdict," he assured, while contending that a term of one year was too short to achieve anything substantial.

Promising to also better regulate traffic in the city , he said priority would be given to construction of flyovers and underpasses to ease congestion. “The deputy mayor and I will tour the wards with BBMP commissioner M. K. Shankarlinge Gowda to expedite the ongoing projects and see that they are completed soon. Regular discussions will be held with the stakeholders and ministers and MLAs from Bengaluru to find solutions to the various problems of the city ,” he added. Making yet another assurance, he said the Technical Vigilance Committee under the Commissioner (TVCC) would be strengthened after due consultations.

While the mayor held out a lot of hope for Bengaluru's future like his predecessors , the city has barely seen any development over the last two years. The question is will he be able to deliver where they have failed?

PLANS FOR THE CITY
A corporator of Katriguppe ward, D. Venkatesh Murthy has been elected Bengaluru’s 46th mayor and Padmanabhanagar corporator, L. Srinivas, the 47th Deputy Mayor. The two spoke to Deccan Chronicle about their ambitions for the city. Excerpts:

DC: What are your priorities for the city?

Mayor: I would like to keep the city clean and garbage- free. Problems like water shortage will be solved after holding a discussion with the BWSSB and the minister concerned.

Deputy Mayor: I would like to concentrate on the less developed areas like the newly added 110 villages and bring them on par with the rest of Bengaluru.

DC: What are your broader o
bjectives ?

Mayor: I plan to hold a janata darshana every week in every ward to learn of their problems. We could also set up a dedicated helpline (Mayor helpline).

Deputy Mayor: Since there is an acute shortage of water in the city we need to protect the lakes from encroachments and keep them fenced. Rain water harvesting will be implemented on government land and footpaths. As far as possible recharge pits will be discouraged in drains as they are not helpful.

DC : You have been accused of encroaching on civic amenity (CA) sites, lakes and government land.

Mayor: I have not encroached upon any CA site. I bought a site in 1997 from the BDA. But Assistant Revenue Officer (ARO) Basavaraj of Padmanabhanagar has been trying to tarnish my image for no reason.

Deputy Mayor: God has given me sufficient wealth. I dont need to encroach upon government land or lakes and neither have I done so.