Bangalore to have 145 wards

Bangalore to have 145 wards

Afshan Yasmeen

Each ward will have a population of 45,000

Polls to BBMP Council likely in October-November
City’s expanded area of 741 sq km has been divided into six sectors

BANGALORE: It is official. The city will have 145 wards with a population of 45,000 in each. Ring roads, storm water drains and railway tracks will be the boundaries of the wards and the size of each will be in the range of 1 sq km to 5 sq km.

This is what the committee appointed by the State Government to carry out the delimitation process in the expanded Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits has recommended.

The committee, which completed the exercise of carving new wards based on the 2001 census, forwarded the proposal to the Government last week.

After the Government notified the formation of BBMP, the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act was amended to increase the number of wards from the existing 100 to 150.

If the committee’s proposal to limit the number of wards to 145 is approved by the Government, the city will be represented by 145 corporators in the maiden council of the BBMP.

Top sources in the Urban Development Department told The Hindu on Friday that elections to the first BBMP Council are likely to be held in October–November, almost a year after the last council of the erstwhile Bangalore Mahan agara Palike completed its term.

After the committee’s recommendations are approved by the Government, the Urban Development Department will put up a draft notification inviting objections and suggestions from people. Subsequently, the final notification will be issued. The department will then fix the roster of reservation for the election of city corporators after which the State Election Commission will notify and conduct the polls.
Process

According to sources in the delimitation committee, the city’s expanded area of 741 sq km has been divided into six sectors with Vidhana Soudha the node. The sectors include areas bounded by Bellary Road-Old Madras Road, Old Madras Road-Hosur Road, Hosur Road-Kanakapura Road, Kanakapura Road-Mysore Road, Mysore Road-Tumkur Road and Tumkur Road-Bellary Road. The classification of wards has been done on the basis of these sectors, the sources said.

The committee has recommended rationalising the wards to ensure uniform population and size. The entire exercise is based on the 2001 census, the sources said.

Among the existing 100 wards, Ganesh Mandir (Ward No 56) is the biggest with a population of 86,000. This ward is spread across 14.2 sq km. Padmanabhanagar (Ward No 55) is the second biggest with a population of 80,000 spreading across 15 sq km and Moodalpalya (Ward No 38) is the smallest with a population of 16,000.

When the delimitation process was carried out in 1996, the city expanded from 152 sq km to 226 sq km. The number of wards increased from 83 to 100.