BENGALURU: A joint legislature committee, set up to review a comprehensive law for Bengaluru, held its maiden meeting with the State Government on Friday to discuss amendments to the Karnataka Municipal Act, 1956, and enacting a separate Bengaluru Municipal Act, 2020. The committee has 22 members — 11 from BJP, nine from Congress and three from JD(S).
Notable among the proposals put forth were enhancing the term of the mayor from the present one year to 3-5 years and increasing the number of zones and wards under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.
Committee chairman and C V Ramanagara MLA S Raghu told The New Indian Express on the sidelines of the meeting that 40 points were placed before the government for discussion. The next meeting is to be held on Monday when the B S Patil and Kasturirangan reports will also be discussed.
Among other issues discussed was that a corporator who is also an MLA, will have to give up one of the posts. Also, an MLC who is also a voter in another district but a resident of Bengaluru, will have to forgo his/her voting right either in Bengaluru or in that district. The committee also deliberated upon the constitutional rights of voters in length and whether MLAs or other elected representative should be allowed voting in the BBMP council.
The committee has also proposed to increase the number of zones in Bengaluru from the existing eight to at least 10-12 and appoint principal secretary-level IAS officers who will take independent decisions on the management of the zones. “At present, joint commissioners have been appointed to each zone and they take decisions in consultation with the commissioner. The committee also proposed to increase the number of wards in the existing geographical area of Bengaluru from 198 to 225 wards. At present, some wards are spread across 1 sqkm while some on city outskirts are spread across 20 sqkm,” Raghu pointed out.
The entire exercise of remodelling the KMC Act must be completed before November 30, the deadline set by the Election Commission to prepare the final voter list. A draft will be made public for 30 days to elicit public opinion. Opinions of all stakeholders and experts, including RWAs, retired IAS officers and chief secretaries will also be taken, he said.