BENGALURU: Not a committee meeting has been held in any of the 198 wards in the city in April. Most corporators cited elections as a reason for not holding the monthly event. “Our volunteers who keep track of the meetings conducted in each ward, found that none happened in April. While some residents were informed that it could not happen due to the model code of conduct, others were told that it would happen, but the corporators or ward committee secretaries never got back to them with the dates. The other reason given to people was that corporators were busy with canvassing for elections,” said Tara Krishnaswamy, coordinator of Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) group, that spearheaded the campaign for conducting the meetings last year.
“We heard that some wards skipped it even in March, citing election work. The code of conduct has nothing to do with these meetings, which are technically routine, administrative work. This affects local civil works in the area and people do not have a platform to air their grievances for various issues,” Krishnaswamy added.
Abdul Aleem, a resident of JP Nagar that falls between Jarganahalli and Yelachenahalli wards, said neither of the two saw a meet-up being held this month.
“I tried reaching out to the ward committee secretary for both wards and neither of them responded. Both corporators said they could not conduct it as they were busy with election-related works,” Aleem said.
The meetings are supposed to be held on the first Saturday of the month, although they can also be organised on the second/third Saturday. The regular interactions between residents, ward committee members and the corporator started in December last year after CfB campaigned for it.
The assistant executive engineer of assistant engineer, who is the ward committee secretary, is responsible for organising it. The meetings will now resume in May, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike mayor Gangambike Mallikarjuna said. “The code of conduct does not apply when it comes to conducting ward committee meetings. In April, there was some confusion regarding this rule. Moreover, none of the officials from BBMP, BESCOM, BWSSB, corporators or ward committee secretaries were available as they were all busy with election work. We are planning to issue instructions to all ward corporators through the council secretary to ensure it is held in May,” she added.