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 The draft notification has also repealed the earlier rules since the number of wards had increased, the source added.