The State government has taken up delimitation of wards in the city in the run up to the civic polls, scheduled next year, on the basis of a proposal moved by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), a copy of which is with The Hindu.
While the number of wards (198) will not change, the core city will have fewer wards as compared to the outer zones once the exercise is complete.
Today, the core city has 100 wards while the rest are in the outer zones, which were added to the city corporation limits in 2007-08. If the BBMP gets its way, this will be reversed.
The aim of the exercise is to bring parity in ward size in terms of population, said civic officials. At present, the population in the wards ranges from 21,171 in Marenahalli to 95,368 in Horamavu.
The delimitation exercise will be done on the bases of the 2011 census. The BBMP proposes to have 198 wards with an average population of 42,645. Several wards in the core city would merge to form a single large ward while some wards in the outer zones will be split into multiple wards. The core city will have 83 wards with a population of 35.25 lakh and outer zones 115 wards with a population of 49.18 lakh.
Thirteen Assembly constituencies within the Outer Ring Road (ORR) will lose 17 wards while nine Assembly constituencies beyond ORR will see an addition of 17 wards.
This exercise is expected to tilt the balance of power in the BBMP council.
Most of the large wards or those with a large population are in the outer zones because of which the latter are not adequately represented in the existing council.
“This has resulted in civic spending tilted in favour of the core city,” explained a councillor from the outer zones.
BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad will be sharing the proposal with revenue officers to ensure that no polling station area is divided among wards, followed by consultations with councillors and MLAs. “The Urban Development Department will publish the draft delimitation order and open it for objections/suggestions from the public. Citizens will have one month to file objections after which the final notification will be issued, including reservation. The entire process may be completed by October 2019,” he said.