Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) passed a new Act exclusively for Bengaluru’s governance on December 21.
So far, the state’s capital city was being governed by the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976.
The new Act was passed by the legislature and received Governor Vajubhai Vala’s approval on December 19. This now allows the BBMP to proceed with the delimitation exercise to increase the number of wards under its purview from 198 to 243.
According to the new Act, the city will have two mayors for a term of five years. Each mayor will be given a 30-month tenure as compared to the previous one-year term. The city will also be bifurcated into separate zones with a committee for each of them.
The Act also allows the BBMP to charge an entertainment tax, transport cess and fees for hoardings. There is also a plan to widen the city’s radius to bring several other IT offices within the city limits.
The new ‘constituency consultative committees’, proposed in the Act are expected to give more power to the MLAs in the functional activities of the city.
On December 18, the Supreme Court had stayed the Karnataka High Court’s order which instructed the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct elections for the 198 wards of the BBMP within as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, it is widely seen that the Act was brought into force by the BJP in order to delay the elections of the BBMP council, whose term had expired on September 10.
