BENGALURU:
The state government seems to be making yet another push for
restructuring Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike into five smaller city
corporations. Having been unsuccessful in its earlier attempts, it does
not want to leave anything to chance and has already begun the ground
work.

The 100 wards of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) were expanded to 198
under BBMP in 2007 with the inclusion of 110 CMC and TMC areas. With the
IT boom, the real estate sector grew and the city expanded rapidly in
geographical area.

It was then that the government stressed that one mayor and one commissioner would not be enough for the city.

Later, a BBMP Restructuring Committee was constituted, headed by former
chief secretary B S Patil, former BBMP commissioner Siddaiah and urban
expert V Ravichandar. The committee favoured splitting of BBMP for
better administration.

On Monday, Bengaluru Development Minister K J George held a
meeting with Mayor Padmavathi and BBMP officials on restructuring the
existing eight Palike zones to 10. “We have asked the BBMP restructuring
committee to make a few changes and we expect to get the report in a
week’s time. We will then issue a notification,’’ George said.

BBMP
Commissioner Manjunath Prasad said the panel had recommended 10 zones.
“In the meeting, it was brought to the notice of George that
Rajarajeshwarinagar and Yeshwanthpur assembly constituencies come under
three different zones, while Bengaluru South constituencies come under
two. It will be problematic if one assembly constituency comes under two
or more zones. Hence, the panel was told to rework this,’’ he said.

However,
sources in the Urban Development said restructuring of zones will be
applicable only for the current term of the BBMP council.

The sources said the Patil Committee is now working on  drafting and
collecting data for delimitation of wards. The committee has recommended
that the population in each ward should be around 35,000. The affairs
of the ward can be managed even if the population touches 45,000-50,000.
This will ensure better coordination between local elected
representatives and officials. The committee is also working on the
Cadre and Recruitment Rule for systematic working of the five proposed
corporations, they said.