BENGALURU: Citizen-activists alleged that the state government's final notification on delimitation of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) wards has ignored several of their objections and suggestions. Their claim, however, runs contrary to that of the authorities that many objections to the preliminary notification were considered.
"Our suggestions have not been considered. This is merely done for election purpose. We just hope the government doesn't come up with any new excuse to skip BBMP polls. I don't know why they are still considering the 2011 census when Bengaluru's population has grown manifold. I'm waiting for new ward maps for a better idea of the new wards and boundaries," said Sandeep Anirudhan, convener, Citizens Agenda for Bengaluru.
Poongothau Mahesh, member, governing council, Bharat Nav Nirman Party, too said her suggestions hadn't been considered. "Why do they even ask for suggestions when they don't want to consider them? Classic Orchard's Layout, off Bannerghatta Road, is still split between two wards and they even come under two different assembly constituencies. This is meaningless. They should at least hold discussions with people who have given suggestions and sought clarifications," she said.
Former BJP corporator (Yediyur) NR Ramesh alleged that some pockets of Thyarajanagar figure in two wards.
Ramesh told TOI that various areas in Padmanabhanagar assembly segment are named in the Yediyur and Ganesh Mandir wards. Nine booths with 7,800 voters figure in both the wards. "The boundaries and areas mentioned in the draft notification were correct and there were no objections to them, yet the government ended up changing things and including the areas in both wards," he alleged.
According to Ramesh, removal of the areas from one of the wards isn't an answer to the problem as that will end up in one of the wards having a population of only 29,000, as against an average of 37,527. A few associations are planning to approach the court against these overlaps, he claimed.
Some ex-corporators hopeful of early pollsFormer corporators said publishing the final notification is a step towards holding the much-delayed BBMP elections. They are hoping that the government will now move swiftly to complete the issuance of ward-wise political reservation.
M Shivaraju, former Congress corporator, said the government will complete the reservation process soon and announce the election, which may be held in December. "BBMP revenue officials may take one month to mark the new boundaries for each ward. The civic body will prepare a new set of voter lists... The government will conduct BBMP elections once all the processes are completed."
Abdul Wazid, former Congress corporator, said it may take only 15 days to announce ward-wise reservation as all data related to quota is available with the government. This new delimitation exercise was done at the behest of the court and if everything goes well, the possibility of holding BBMP elections in December is high.
However, K Umesh Shetty, former BJP corporator (Govindarajanagar ward), expressed doubts over BBMP polls happening anytime soon. The government isn't interested in holding BBMP polls soon, but is only pretending to be in a hurry to go for early elections, he claimed. "As per my knowledge, the BBMP election will be held only after the 2024 parliamentary elections," said Shetty.
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