The state government sprang a surprise on Friday by reducing the total number of wards coming under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to 225. The new gazette notification – which makes the recently delimited 243 wards a history – is all set to repeat the process of redrawing the ward boundaries for the second time in the last two years.
The notification cites Section 7 of the BBMP Act 2020 that empowers the government to revise the number of ward boundaries.
On the basis of government order, the delimitation committee – headed by BBMP’s Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath – is expected to start the fresh process of delimiting wards on the basis of Census 2011. In all probability, the number of wards – which went up in the outlying wards during the last delimitation exercise – is likely to be reduced to match the 225-figure.
Also Read | Preliminary report retains BBMP wards at 243
Like 243, the government may have picked 225 as the figure totals up to nine, which is considered to be a lucky number.
Last week, the delimitation committee – constituted by the state government on July 22 – had submitted a preliminary report to the Urban Development department (UDD), retaining the total number of BBMP wards at 243 in the absence of clear directions from the government. The Friday’s notification is expected to put an ambiguity over the number of wards as the government is under pressure to complete the entire exercise in the next two months.
On June 20, the High Court had granted a period of twelve weeks to redo the exercise of ward delimitation based on the request of the Congress-led state government.
After the term of the last elected council expired in September, 2020, the government delayed fresh elections citing the need to come up with an exclusive Act for the BBMP limits. The new Act suggested increasing the number of wards to a maximum of 250. The previous delimitation committee added 45 new wards to the erstwhile 198 wards.
The state government had notified 243 wards in July last year. On its part, the BBMP has not created new ward offices or hired additional workforce due to delay in holding BBMP polls.