Govt outsources delimitation process

Govt outsources delimitation process
The Times of India

Bangalore: What does the government do to avoid bureaucratic delay of its project. Outsource it!
For the first time, a vital process of delimiting the city under the Greater Bangalore has been outsourced to a private company.
The company — N Soft India Private Limited — has been asked to consider infrastructure network features like roads, pipelines, power lines, storm water drains, parks as the boundaries of wards so that they are easily identified on the ground.
Greater Bangalore, also called as Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, will consist of 150 wards in which seven CMCs and one TMC have been added to the existing Bangalore city corporation limits.
Delimitation of wards includes established boundaries of electoral units and involves determining frequency criteria, degree of public participation, respective roles of elected representatives and executive branches of the Palike and others.
The present Palike comprises 100 wards, which are irregularly mapped, with some of the constituency having population over 65,000, while others consist of less than 20,000. Ward 55 (Padmanabhanagar) is the biggest constituency with more than 1 lakh population, followed by ward 55 (Ganesh Mandir) with more than 87,000 population. The smallest is Amarjyothi Nagar having only 15,000.
During the delimitation process, the residing population within the ward should match with that of census information. The entire land coming within the GB should be distributed among the wards and no blank areas should be left between the wards census blocks should be used as the basic units for formation of wards. Also population data used should be classified as suggested by the State Election Commission and existing polling stations should be also indicated, are among the terms of reference to the company given by the state government.
The government has also sanctioned Rs 29.48 lakh to the company for taking up the delimitation work.
“The company will function under overall supervision of Bangalore urban district deputy commissioner and urban development department,’’ sources in the urban development department said.
Homework time for panel
The expert committee on strategies to ensure planned growth of Greater Bangalore, headed by space scientist K Kasturirangan, held its first meeting on Saturday.
The meeting was largely restricted to addressing various issues that need to be tackled, including legislative and legal ones.
“We will be looking at the best practices in India and also outside the country and see how far they are applicable to us. All that we did today was to give ourselves some homework,’’ S Sadagopan, IIIT-B director, who is also a member in the committee said. The committee will hold its second meeting around December 20.