BBMP elects heads to standing committees

The chairpersons for standing committees were elected by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Thursday after a gap of three months. Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun elected the chairmen at her office.

S P Hemalatha, JD(S) corporator from Vrishabhavathi Nagar ward, was elected as the chairperson of the Tax and Finance standing committee. According to the agreement between the Congress and JD(S) coalition partners, this key position was given to a JD(S) corporator. The chairperson will responsible for presenting the BBMP budget, monitor property tax collection and strategise to boost revenues etc. Mujahid Pasha from Siddapura ward was elected as the chairman of Public Health standing committee. This is the second term for him in this post.

Meanwhile, S G Nagaraj from Vignannagar ward was elected as the chairman of Town Planning and Development standing committee, Lavanya Ganesh Reddy, Congress corporator from Lingarajapuram ward, who was also in the fray for the mayor’s post, was elected as the chairman of Major Public Works standing committee, and Umme Salma from Kushal Nagar ward was elected to the ward-level public works standing committee.

The Accounts standing committee is headed by M Velunayakar, Congress corporator from Lakshmi Devi Nagar, Education standing committee is headed by JD(S) corporator Imran Pasha, Social Justice standing committee is headed by P Soumya. Aishwarya B N from Binnypet was elected to the Horticulture standing committee, Anand Kumar S from Hoysala Nagar ward was elected to the Establishment and Administrative reforms standing committee, Farida Istayik was elected to the Markets standing committee and Sujatha D C Ramesh was elected to the Appeals standing committee.

Despite electing the members to standing committees during the last month, the chairmen were not elected as was disagreement over the distribution of posts between the parties. Some BJP corporators too were vying for posts.