Urban News

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size

Government to take another shot at splitting BBMP

Print PDF

The New Indian Express      05.04.2017 

Government to take another shot at splitting BBMP

Pipes being put up in the BBMP office; An RWH pit in the BBMP office premises | NAGARAJA GADEKAL

BENGALURU: The state government seems to be making yet another push for restructuring Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike into five smaller city corporations. Having been unsuccessful in its earlier attempts, it does not want to leave anything to chance and has already begun the ground work.

The 100 wards of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) were expanded to 198 under BBMP in 2007 with the inclusion of 110 CMC and TMC areas. With the IT boom, the real estate sector grew and the city expanded rapidly in geographical area.

It was then that the government stressed that one mayor and one commissioner would not be enough for the city.

Later, a BBMP Restructuring Committee was constituted, headed by former chief secretary B S Patil, former BBMP commissioner Siddaiah and urban expert V Ravichandar. The committee favoured splitting of BBMP for better administration.

On Monday, Bengaluru Development Minister K J George held a meeting with Mayor Padmavathi and BBMP officials on restructuring the existing eight Palike zones to 10. “We have asked the BBMP restructuring committee to make a few changes and we expect to get the report in a week’s time. We will then issue a notification,’’ George said.

BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad said the panel had recommended 10 zones. “In the meeting, it was brought to the notice of George that Rajarajeshwarinagar and Yeshwanthpur assembly constituencies come under three different zones, while Bengaluru South constituencies come under two. It will be problematic if one assembly constituency comes under two or more zones. Hence, the panel was told to rework this,’’ he said.

However, sources in the Urban Development said restructuring of zones will be applicable only for the current term of the BBMP council.

The sources said the Patil Committee is now working on  drafting and collecting data for delimitation of wards. The committee has recommended that the population in each ward should be around 35,000. The affairs of the ward can be managed even if the population touches 45,000-50,000. This will ensure better coordination between local elected representatives and officials. The committee is also working on the Cadre and Recruitment Rule for systematic working of the five proposed corporations, they said.