It is the responsibility of each Bangalorean to ensure that the tax he pays is being utilised properly by the corporation

K Chandrashekhar Bangalore mayor

Janagraha, or Team Spirit, is a public-private initiative on the lines of a successful Brazilian experiment in the city of Porto Alegro in 1989.

The experiment, in which people will participate in the making the Bangalore City Corporation's budget, has met with a significant response.

"It has touched the people's chord. It has been endorsed by 90,000 citizens and 250 resident association so far" said Ramesh Ramanathan, the programme's architect and financial expert.

Mr Ramanathan said the number of participants should rise to 250,000 by March.

Mr Ramanathan took up the cause of shoring up Bangalore's image as one of the best governed cities in India after quitting his job with an American Bank.

The scheme got the ready nod from one of India's progressive Chief Ministers S.M.Krishna, who aspires to transform hi-tech Bangalore into another Singapore.

Streamlined expenditure

The plan is get resident associations and local corporate and civic authorities to identify the city's key issues in the next three months and have them implemented within budget.

Bangalore is often known as India's Silicon Valley

Citizens will have a say in recommending ways to increase revenues, and streamline expenditure.

Initially, the programme caused some concern among newly-elected representatives of the Bangalore Corporation, but slowly they are coming around.

"We want citzens to play an active role in day to day management of the city," Bangalore City Corporation Commissioner Ashok Dalwai says.

"The budget is an instrument of change. The involvement of citizens will make the budget reform-oriented."

Bangalore's young Mayor, K.Chandrashekhar, is fully behind the scheme.

"It is the responsibility of each Bangalorean to ensure that the tax he pays is being utilised properly by the corporation," he said.

Last year the City Corporation's budget was around nine billion rupees.

Porto Alegro success The model for the Bangalore scheme in Porto Alegro, Brazil, is credited with transforming it into one of the best towns in that country.

In education and child birth, for instance, it now fares much better than the Brazilian average.