Elections to the BBMP council is increasingly turning into a mirage. While the request by the restructuring committee seeking an extension till June-end had led to speculation over the election schedule, a move initiated by the Urban Development Department (UDD) is likely to further delay the process.
The UDD has taken up the delimitation of 198 wards according to the latest 2011 census data following which boundaries of the existing wards would be redrawn. The exercise is likely to take several months, as the process involves wide ranging public consultations.
The department has floated a tender through Keonics, inviting companies to put up the delimitation data on a website and collate public opinion for the same, for which three months’ time is given.
Anil Kumar T K, Secretary, UDD told The Hindu , “We are working on the process and will soon open it for public consultation, after which the final notification would be issued.”
The delimitation process is not only likely to delay the elections, but also work at cross-purposes with the three-member restructuring committee of the BBMP.
A member of the restructuring committee said: “We are presently working with the existing ward boundaries. Since the delimitation process is expected to take several months, our work may be outdated if we don’t work on the new boundaries.”
The committee is getting a GIS mapping done for the existing wards, which will be a wasted exercise if the boundaries are redrawn.
However, district in-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy sounded confident that the BBMP elections would be held as per schedule in April 2015, after the term of the current council comes to an end.
Rationalisation
of wards
The delimitation is expected to rationalise boundaries based on population. At present, the population of a ward varies between 20,000 and 95,000. Post-delimitation, each ward is expected to have an average population of 40,000. However, the number of wards would remain the same at 198.
