BBMP polls may be delayed as delimitation panel term extended

Bengaluru: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections are expected to be delayed with the delimitation committee receiving an extension for another 6 months.

On Saturday, Urban Development Department (UDD) issued a circular extending the term of the delimitation committee for another six months with effect from July 28, 2021.

Despite not having an elected council for the past 13 months, the much-awaited BBMP elections are likely to get further delayed with the extension to the delimitation committee.

UDD issued the extension order taking into consideration the havoc played by Covid-19 cases and lockdown imposed to check the pandemic. Expressing the inability of the committee to complete the task within the previous deadline (July), UDD has instructed the committee to complete the task by January 28, 2022.

BBMP had previously requested the UDD for an extension for another six months in September. In this regard, UDD had also forwarded the request to Chief Minister's Office (CMO) to take the final call. In January 2021, BBMP was instructed by UDD to complete the delimitation exercise by July 2021.

The committee is given the mandate to make recommendation on the inclusion of border villages and re-allocation of wards to the BBMP's jurisdiction.

"The process of merging the BBMP border villages is in progress. The draft is almost ready. But before it was finalized, BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said that he had sought the direction from the government on some issues.

The Urban Development Department also issued a notification on 14 August 2020 on increasing the number of wards to 243. The committee was constituted under the chairmanship of the BBMP commissioner to make recommendations on inclusion of new villages in BBMP. Bangalore City District Collector, Bangalore Development Authority Commissioner and BBMP's Special Commissioner (Revenue) are its members.

After the BBMP Act of 2020 was passed, the department had revised the ward restructuring committee on 29 January 2021. Its term ended on 28 June 2021. But the government did not extend its tenure. The committee only met once before its expiration. The government has instructed the committee to extend the perimeter of the BBMP by merging villages within 1 km of the border.

The BBMP Act of 2020 limits the total number of members of the Palike to not exceed 243. Section 365 of the Act describes the inclusion of panchayat areas in Palike limits. While areas with the Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act 1993 have been incorporated by the government by issuing a section 4A subsection 1 of the BBMP Act.