BENGALURU: A legislators’ committee tasked with scrutinising the BBMP Bill, 2020, has approved the state government’s proposals to increase the Bengaluru mayor and deputy mayor’s tenures from one year to 30 months and the number of wards from 198 to 243.
The Joint Legislature Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Restructuring Committee’s final report on the bill was tabled in the assembly on Wednesday. The bill seeks a separate law for the tech capital’s civic administration. Currently, BBMP is governed by provisions of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1968.
The BS Yediyurappa government is expected to quickly incorporate the committee’s recommendations and table a new version of the bill in the assembly on Thursday.
But the proposed law’s path may be tricky. Recently, the Karnataka high court asked the State Election Commission (SEC) to announce a poll schedule for the existing 198 BBMP wards in six weeks. The government plans to move the Supreme Court to seek deferment of the polls, so it can implement the new law.
After tabling the report on Wednesday, BJP legislator S Raghu, who headed the 20-member house committee, said: “The bill proposes sweeping changes to the way Bengaluru is administered. It will help develop the city further.” On increasing the mayor and deputy mayor’s tenures from one year to 30 months, Raghu said: “It’s been a long-standing complaint of mayors and deputy mayors that the one year term is not sufficient to implement plans.”
Apart from supporting the demand for more wards, the committee’s report says that zonal committees should be set up. “The concept of zonal committees is an important aspect of the new bill as it empowers councillors. The details, including how much money zonal committees can independently spend, will be spelled out in the act,” said Congress MLC and committee member PR Ramesh. The report suggests constituency advisory committees in the city’s 28 assembly segments. They should be headed by the local MLAs.