Scores of citizens and members of the Resident Welfare Association staged a protest urging the State government to conduct fair, free and timely Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections.
Various organisations under the banner of Namma Bengaluru Foundation slammed the government's move of superseding the BBMP, just a few days before the term of the council was to end and also said that the government was using trifurcation of BBMP only as an excuse to postpone the polls.
85-year-old Anand Siri, past president of the Malleshwaram Swabhimanaa Initiative said that the State government must uphold the citizens constitutional right to elect their local representatives. He also said that there was a need for the government to hold more consultations and also study the issue of trifurcation in detail before taking a decision on it.
Sridhar Pabbisetty, Chief Executive Officer of Namma Bengaluru Foundation criticised the government's move of calling for a special session of the assembly has been convened to amend the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, to trifurcate BBMP into three corporations. despite the State government's appeal being pending before the High Court.
"It should be acknowledged that the governance deficit cannot be merely attributed to BBMP's unwieldy size. By doing so, the fundamental reasons for poor governance are being entirely missed. Until the issue of administrative incompetence and financial devolution are not adequately dealt with, the whole exercise of BBMP restructuring would be futile," he said.
Some of the demands
* Make the Rajendra Kumar Kataria report on irregularities in BBMP public
* Empower the Metropolitan Planning Committee to draft development plan and to ensure that meetings are held regularly.
* Do not delay elections to the BBMP under the guise of trifurcating BBMP
* Empower the ward committees and ensure the members of elected and not nominated
