Now, Whitefield Rising to form ward panels to track infra work

After protesting against bad roads, the citizens’ movement Whitefield Rising (WR) aims to form ward committees to strengthen governance and administration in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency. WR volunteers will start monitoring the selection of citizens on December 19.

Along with them, Mahadevapura MLA Aravind Limbavali and corporators will take part in the screening process of the potential ward committee members. The screening will be held in Varthur ward on December 19 and Kadugodi the day after.

Vijay Mane, who is spearheading the committees’ formation, said that Mahadevapura constituency had seven wards and each ward committee was expected to have six to ten members, including Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials.

“We want 50:50 share in selection of members. About 20 citizens have already shown interest in becoming part of the ward committees. We are looking for someone who can spare at least half a day towards the civic issues and be a watchdog tracking the projects taking place at the ward level.”

The team is looking for people who have expertise in areas such as Solid Waste Management (SWM), health and civil infrastructure. Along with screening, the potential members will be asked to speak on their goals, changes they want to see in their ward and their plans.

Mane said that by the first week of January, they want to select citizens in all the seven wards. Whitefield Rising volunteers said that though they had been pushing for the formation of ward committees for a year now, it was only in the last few days that they took it as a priority. They added that the ward committees would engage with the civic agency and the local MLA to improve Whitefield’s infrastructure.

Zibi Jamal, a volunteer with the WR, said one of their key demands before the BBMP elections was to form ward committees. But that didn’t take shape after elections as there was confusion within the Palike over the newly elected corporators.