BBMP polls: Government puts more roadblocks

BENGALURU: The state government seems stubborn on trifurcating BBMP to put off the civic body polls. On Friday it superceded the BBMP, based on the Rajkumar Kataria report that had alleged irregularities in the BJP-ruled BBMP. Meanwhile it has also called a special legislation to pass a bill on trifurcation and send it to the Governor for his consent.

The state government would get a minimum of six months to hold BBMP polls and will appoint an administrator to fill the vacuum. The government through its advocate general would argue in high court on trifurcation of BBMP and try to postpone the election by at least a year or two.

The Congress has not performed well in the recent elections held across the country. The state government aims to buy time to build its lost image to fight both the BBMP and assembly elections, said highly placed sources.

Meanwhile, the government plans to post an administrator to streamline the finance and announce populist scheme through state budget, before going for BBMP polls. Issues like pending bills, loans and garbage crisis would also be addressed, sources said. The government is planning to appoint either a retired IAS officer and former BBMP commissioner Siddaiah or another IAS officer K.S. Sathyamurthy as administrator.

The government also wants give a free hand to the administrator to collect the betterment fee by approving the same, which is pending before the government. The government aims to garner at least Rs 4,000 crore and strengthen the property tax collection, added sources. The revenue earned will be used to tide over the financial crisis being faced by the BBMP and revive the civic body in the form of trifurcation, sources said.

The ruling party leader in the BBMP council, N.R. Ramesh, said the decision of the government to supercede BBMP will be challenged in the court and a stay would be sought.
Since the hearing is coming up on Monday can the government supercede the civic body? he added.

Poll quota: High court notice to govt, SEC

The high court, while hearing a petition questioning the new reservation norm for the BBMP elections, issued notices to state government, BBMP and Karnataka State Election Commission on Friday.

However, the court refused to stay the notification for reservation and adjourned the matter to April 20. The court has asked the BBMP for its assistance in hearing the matter. The reservation notification accorded 50 per cent quota for women, thereby enabling 97 women to contest across the city.