‘Rationale’ for more wards is the population increase in outskirts
BENGALURU:
In what could be a further gambit to delay polls for a new BBMP council, the joint legislative committee led by CV Raman Nagar MLA S Raghu has recommended increasing the number of wards from the existing 198 to 243.
The recommendation is set to be tabled by Law Minister JC Madhuswamy in the state assembly on Tuesday.
Speaking to TheBengaluruLive, committee chairman S Raghu confirmed the development and said that the assembly would take a final call on the number of BBMP wards.
“All the legislators who were members of the committee have consented to the proposal. More wards will be created on the outskirts of the city. But no new territory or villages will be added. The existing 198 wards will be further divided to create 45 new wards. Of these, 15 wards will be created in the core areas of Bengaluru and the remaining 30 wards will be on the outskirts,” he said.
More reservation ‘games’
There was a consensus in the committee that there should be more wards on the outskirts, which have seen a greater growth in population. Reservations would also need to be made for the 45 new wards. Raghu said the civic elections “could be conducted soon”.
Downgrading civic chief?
“The BBMP amendment bill is likely to be tabled in the assembly on September 22. We will submit the final report to the government within a month. Administrative decisions should be taken at the zonal level. It was also felt that there was no need for getting approvals at the Commissioner’s level,” Raghu said. The committee also discussed the declining property tax collections in the city.
