Ward boundaries politico-centric: BNP

The report suggested that the population of a ward must not exceed 75,000 and voters not more than 50,000.

BENGALURU: Further to the draft notification issued by the state government on delimitation of BBMP Wards, the Bengaluru Navanirmana Party (BNP) has released a document proposing a different method for delimitation. The party has urged the government to apply scientific methods to redraw the new boundaries for better administration and to make these wards citizen-friendly.

The number of wards cannot exceed 200 in BBMP as mandated in the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act and average population per ward on these parameters works out to a little over 60,000, area of about 3.5 sqkm and road length of about 68 km per ward.

The report suggested that the population of a ward must not exceed 75,000 and voters not more than 50,000. The area of a ward must not exceed 5 sqkm, while the road length must not exceed 100 km. Applying this, it was found that  32 wards on the outskirts of the city can be expanded to at least 64 wards and the other 166 wards compressed to 125 wards.

Reacting to the draft notification, Sowmya Raghavan, Executive Committee Member, BNP, said, “The draft does not have ward boundaries on a map nor any details with respect to the area of each ward, length of the roads, length of stormwater drains (SWD) etc. There is no clarity as to how the population and voters of each ward have been determined. If the estimate of the population has been based on the 2011 census, then parameter applied to account for the increase since 2011 needs an explanation. Wards on the outskirts have recorded more growth than those in the interiors. It is also unclear whether the estimate of the population is based on the number of property-tax payers, Bescom or BWSSB connections or as held in the BBMP’s database. There is no proper record of the data.”

She said, “Why consider population forward boundaries when area and road length are also equally important since it involves development work. Currently, the outskirts of the city are growing faster and inner areas are stagnant. The boundaries provided right now are politician-centric delimitation and not citizen-centric. The wards need to be as uniform as possible,” said Srikanth Narasimhan, general secretary of the party. Several citizens also plan to submit the report to the government on Wednesday to push for the initiative.

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