Close on the heels of the High Court of Karnataka fixing
responsibility of monitoring garbage clearance on Bruhat Bangalore
Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and ward committees, the civic body has drafted
rules governing the functioning of the committees.

The
draft rules are likely to be tabled before the BBMP council’s subject
meeting scheduled for Saturday. The draft notification of the Karnataka
Municipal Corporations (Ward Committee and Area Sabha) Rules 2012 has
already been published by the Department of Urban Development. Once
approved by the BBMP council, it will be official once the government
issues a gazette notification.

The mandate

The
rules basically govern the functioning of the committee, such as
holding special meetings in case of emergency, preparation of agenda for
the regular meetings. The committee will be responsible for not just
solid waste management, but will also have to submit waste development
scheme for allotment of funds and ensure proper utilisation of funds
allotted. Other than these, the committee will also have to monitor
maintenance of streetlights, parks, open spaces, green spaces, and
approve the list of beneficiaries for welfare schemes, besides ensuring
the timely collection of taxes, fees and other sums due to the
corporation.

Monthly meets

The
rules clearly mandate the ward committees to meet every month. The
minutes of the meeting should be sent to the BBMP council, while the
secretary appointed by the BBMP Commissioner will be responsible to
carry out all resolutions of the ward committee.

According
to highly placed sources in the BBMP, though the government has issued
the draft notification on the “rules”, the subject being tabled in the
council read as “byelaws/ rules”. The source asked: “How can rules be
tabled as byelaws? Byelaws are different, as they apply to procedures
for approving a plan, licence and levying a penalty etc. These just deal
with the functioning and transaction of business. Hence, these cannot
be called byelaws.”

The source said that the draft
rules were just a “re-copy of the rules that existed in 1995, with some
minor changes.” The draft notification has also repealed the earlier
rules since the number of wards had increased, the source added.