BBMP’s E-Aasthi house khata project extended to 11 wards in Shantinagar and CV Raman Nagar Assembly constituencies
Civic officials face a tricky task in limiting BBMP ward population to 40,000 as many existing wards have voters in excess of 50,000
BENGALURU:
Finally, the wheels for the long-overdue BBMP elections seem to be moving as the civic administration has called for a maiden meeting of the ward delimitation committee on Saturday.
The decision to hold the first meeting came after thebengalurulive broke a story on July 9 titled ‘Bengalureans, don’t expect BBMP elections for at least 1.5 years!’, which had stated that the ward delimitation panel headed by the BBMP chief had not met even once in 6 months.
The poll issue is pending in the Supreme Court after the state government challenged the Karnataka High Court’s order to hold BBMP elections expeditiously. In their opposing affidavits in the SC, the State Election Commission has said the Karnataka government’s bid to increase BBMP wards is constitutionally untenable, while BBMP has said the proposed increase in wards is for ‘efficient administration’.
Sources in BBMP said that Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta has called the ward delimitation committee’s preliminary meeting on Saturday, July 17. The meeting will be attended by its members – the Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner, the BDA Commissioner and member-secretary Basavaraju, Special Commissioner (Revenue), BBMP.
Unenviable task
The discussions will centre on aspects of conducting the ward delimitation exercise to increase BBMP wards from the existing 198 to 243.
According to sources, Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta will need to call for another round of meetings with BBMP’s Revenue Department officials who will be playing a key role in framing the ward boundaries.
Sources said that BBMP has to decide ward boundaries by keeping each ward’s population to around 40,000 – a tricky task as many wards have populations in excess of 50,000.
As per the latest electoral rolls published on December 1, 2020, BBMP’s 198 wards have 81,31,723 voters, of whom 42,32,632 are male, 38,97,694 are female and 1,397 are ‘third gender’.
Many existing wards have voters in excess of 50,000. For example, Sir M Vishweshwaraiah ward (ward no. 77) has 57,684 voters, Rajarajeshwari Nagar (149) has 57,070, Thanisandra (6) has 56,886, Uttarahalli (180) 56,881, Horamavu (31) 54,887, Gottigere (196) 53,685, Begur (192) 52,379, Herohalli (76) 52,345, Subramanyapura (181) 50,625, Bharathi Nagar(88) 50,497 and KR Puram (57) 50,180.
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