Poll panel to hold meeting to discuss BBMP elections

The BBMP council’s term ends in March 2015

The proposal to split Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has gained steam with government agencies favouring it. Further, all 13 agencies consulted by the panel entrusted with the responsibility of restructuring BBMP have termed the palike “unwieldy.”

This is even as the State Election Commission has set the ball rolling for elections by convening a meeting this month-end to discuss details of the elections to the BBMP.

Sources close to the three-member panel, which is expected to submit an interim report to the government next week, said: “While those boards (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company, among others) that deal extensively with BBMP have expressed the need to split BBMP, while others have not taken a stand.”

More time to be sought

While the BBMP’s term ends in March 2015, the panel, which started work on November 20, is expected to seek at least six months more to submit its final report, which will also need consultations with resident welfare associations and utilisation of geographic information system (GIS).

The interim report is likely to have “quotes and reviews” expressed during the consultations as well as comparative analysis made of major cities in the world, but will not be a “prescriptive” one.

The panel is yet to decide on whether the split, if there is one, is to be an “administrative” one or a “political one.”

December 29 meeting

Meanwhile, officials in the State Election Commission said the December 29 meeting was mainly to discuss delimitation of wards and reservation quotas. “Our job is to conduct elections. The Supreme Court has made it clear that a new elected body needs to be ready to take over before the term of the present one ends. Splitting or not splitting the BBMP is for the government to decide,” an official said.