BENGALURU: As the Karnataka government brought down the curtains on Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Tuesday, and paved the way for Greater Bengaluru Authority, Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister DK Shivakumar termed the day “historic”.
On Monday, the government had issued the final notification, framing rules for elections to five city corporations under the new entity.
The DCM said each corporation will include up to 150 wards and there could be 500 corporators for the entire city. He also announced that 50 per cent of the wards will be reserved for women.
As per the gazette notification issued on Tuesday, the number of wards under each corporation will be drawn up after considering the average population in each ward. The population of a ward should be around 20,000, plus or minus 25 per cent. The condition that there should be not more than 150 wards, should be considered while determining the number of wards. It may be noted that the city’s population is estimated to be around 1.44 crore, as per data collated during the 2023 elections.
The DCM said that by November-end, both ward delimitation and Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation would be completed, and an affidavit to this effect has been filed in the Supreme Court. The government also set up the Ward Delimitation Commission through a notification on Tuesday, with the GBA Chief Commissioner as its chairman, the senior-most commissioner among the five commissioners as member, and Special Commissioner (Administration, Revenue and IT) of the GBA as member secretary.
Addressing the media, Shivakumar said the GBA and new corporations have come into effect, and the government has not altered the spirit of the 74th Amendment to the Constitution.
GBA to meet once every three months for progress reviews
“The 74th Amendment gives power to local administrations to manage its finances,” Shivakumar added.
To a question on possible revenue diversion from one corporation to another, he said this will not happen as it is against the constitution, and if a corporation needs money, the government will allocate funds. “The GBA will have to meet once every three months for progress reviews,” he said.
While the new corporations will function from their respective zonal offices under the erstwhile BBMP, Shivakumar informed that bhoomi puja will be held at places identified for corporation offices on November 1, and structures will come up on 2-5 acres of available land, and the agencies tasked with construction will be asked to consider heritage and cost while putting up the structure.
The notification includes framing rules for elections, setting the expenditure limit for those contesting elections in urban wards at Rs 5 lakh, and steps to be taken in case of complaints about fake voters during elections, etc.