The New Indian Express 17.12.2009
Revised BBMP ward reservation norms notified
BANGALORE: The state government on Wednesday notified the revised set of guidelines on reservation of wards in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in tune with the High Court’s directions.
The ward-wise allotment of the quota is yet to be released.
As per the revised guidelines, the reservations for Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and others shall be based on the collectively higher order of their population in the 198 wards of BBMP, and not as per the population of these groups in each assembly segment within BBMP limits.
Latest inference
The delimitation of wards in BBMP had followed the differential pattern of demarcation.
The criteria was that there shall be an elected representative for a population of every 20,000 to 30,000.
With a futuristic projection on population growth, the wards’ demarcation went by 30,000 population in the core area and 20,000 population in the newly integrated areas.
A section of officials observed that with the differential pattern of ward demarcation, the reservations based on the collective population of BBMP means that the reserved category groups in the peripheral areas are likely to lose out.
It may be a scenario where the core area will see a cluster of reserved seats and no reserved seats at all in large parts of the newly added limits, they said.
The government is expected to finalise the ward-wise allotment of quotas by December 23.
A total 91 of the 198 wards fall under the reserved bracket: BC (A): 53 (18 women); BC (B): 13 (4 women); SC: 23 ( 8 women); ST: 2 ( 1 women) Of the 107 general seats, 36 are for women.
What HC said
In July 2009, the government had issued the reservation guidelines based on the Assembly segment-wise population and followed it with ward-wise allotments on November 30.
On December 8, a day after the State Election Commission announced the calendar of events pegging February 21 as the BBMPpoll date, a division bench of the High Court had ordered the government to relook the guidelines.
Hearing a batch of writ petitions the division bench had overruled a single judge order of October which had approved the Assembly segment- wise reservations.
