250-ward plan to go before assembly

BENGALURU: Bengaluru to have 250 wards? The proposal will now go before the Assembly. The Joint Legislature BBMP Restructuring Committee, which is working on creating the Bengaluru Municipal Act 2020, has submitted a proposal to the State government in this regard.The committee members held a meeting with Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday evening, and it was decided to table the proposal in the Assembly on Tuesday for final clearance. The proposal is to increase the city’s 198 wards to 250.

S Raghu, C V Raman Nagar MLA and head of the committee, told The New Indian Express that the proposal had got the approval across party lines, and that only the final official seal was required, for which it would be tabled in the Assembly. The idea of doing this exercise at the earliest is to ensure that there are no hurdles for holding the BBMP Council elections, he said.

The division of wards will be done based on their size. The proposal has come soon after the government issued the fresh reservation list for the BBMP wards, as a procedure, ahead of the BBMP elections. Once the wards are divided, new reservations will be added to the revised ward reservation list, a BBMP official explained.

The committee has held over five meetings over the last 15 days where it has decided to bifurcate the BBMP wards, extend the tenure of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, appoint zonal commissioners, reduce the number of standing committees from 12 to 8 etc.Raghu said, “Approval of all things is not required, but it is crucial for the bifurcation of BBMP wards. Also, the law secretary also wants to propose the tax revision in the assembly, but we are not keen  because of the pandemic financial crisis everyone is facing. I agree that the last revision was done in 2016 and it is needed now, but it can wait for another year.”

He added that the entire exercise of getting all the points accepted in the new Act and making changes and then placing them before the committee for approval and then before the government, will take at least two months. Then it will be placed for public scrutiny before the final draft is prepared. Until then, the Karnataka Municipal Act, 1976 will be applicable. Also the bifurcated wards will follow the Karnataka Municipal Council norms.