BENGALURU: Disappointed by the BBMP’s lack of initiative to put out information on ward committees, local civic group, Citizens for Bengaluru, started an online campaign to spread the word.
An earlier story by City Express told readers about the confusion faced by residents on applying for ward committees.
A deadline extension of two weeks was given to the BBMP to set up the committees by the Karnataka High Court at the beginning of the month, which has also been crossed now.
Citizens for Bengaluru (CFB) managed to do what the BBMP hadn’t so far - bring publicity to the importance of residents sending in their applications to be part of their local ward committees.
Co-founder of the group, Srinivas Alavalli, who is spearheading this campaign, says they have received very positive response since this initiative kicked off.
“A talk I had held on CFB opened my eyes. There was silence when I mentioned ward committees, and I was stunned that no one knew what they were,” says Alavalli.
CFB has received 1,000 nominations so far, and out of those nominations, around 150 people have agreed to be part of the committee.
“The application we put up online is not a formal one, as the BBMP actually hasn’t provided these. We just made our own application form,” says Srinivas. Rosita, a member of CFB, says once they received the nominations, she and other members called the nominated people. “I called around 20-30 people, and they all were interested is being part of their ward’s committee,” she says. Kathyayani Chamraj says, “I visited Sarfaraz Khan (joint commissioner, BBMP,(health/solid waste management) earlier this week, and he said that he would be issuing a circular on the guidelines to be followed for applying for ward committees,” says Chamraj.
He adds, “The next court hearing is on June 28, so we’re hoping the committees will be in place before that.”
Rosita says, “About 23 ward committees have been signed off till now, and 107 still need official signatures. Names from the remaining wards have not come in yet.” Despite repeated attempts to contact Sarfaraz Khan on the status of the circular, City Express did not get a response.