Finally, BBMP wards list out

Finally, BBMP wards list out
Bangalore, DH News Service:

The much awaited final notification on the delimitation of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) wards has been released in a gazetted form by the Urban Development Department on Wednesday.

Incorporating the 198 wards as proposed and passed by the Cabinet, the Government of Karnataka has brought out the final notification in a record time of one month.

“We have delivered the final notification to the State Election Commission today morning,” confirmed the Urban Development Department, Principal Secretary, U Thangaraj.

The Urban Development Department had released the draft delimitation of the wards on June 17 this year and called for suggestions by June 30. In this course, the government had received 1,700 odd suggestions and objections. On Wednesday, the draft notification was finally released. Stating that the real task of delivering the result now lies with the State Election Commission (SEC), Thangaraj said that the notification has incorporated all the 198 wards with only minor tinkering. “But the time consuming job is now with the SEC who will have to prepare the voters list for each ward,” he warned.
With the delimitation in effect, the old voters list has now been divided through the middle and a new one will now have to be prepared based on the polling stations in the various wards.

Draft notification

With the chunk of the notification out, the Urban Development department will now be bringing out a draft notification by Thursday for reservation of wards. “We will be working towards bringing out the draft notification for the reservation of wards in a day and hope to complete the entire process in the next 10 days,” said Thangaraj. The draft notification will be inviting complaints and suggestions for reserving wards for the backward classes and women in the City.

Court notice

The High Court on Tuesday ordered issue of notice to the BBMP and the Government, following a petition that the delimitation of the Palike wards was irregular. Petitioner B K Venkatesh had moved the Court stating that the executive had failed to discharge its duty and was causing loss to the state exchequer through this exercise.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice P D Dinakaran and Justice V G Sabhahit taking the officials to task asked, “Are you doing it deliberately as per your political consideration ? If so, it is a deliberate violation of the Court order.”

The bench further said, “It amounts to contempt. You are taking the Court order as shield. If this happens, we will initiate a suo moto contempt petition.”