JOIN USThe State government will come out with a new ward-wise reservation list to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in June for the elections scheduled to be held in July.
Speaking to reporters after visiting the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office in here on Tuesday, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, who is also district in-charge of Bengaluru Urban, said that the previous reservation list notified by the government had been withdrawn and the High Court informed about it.
The Supreme Court had recently directed the State government to conduct polls to the BBMP within three months.
The government had come out with a ward-wise reservation list in April this year following a direction of a single judge of the Karnataka High Court that elections to BBMP be held by May 30.
The order was quashed by a division bench of the High Court. In turn, the division bench order was set aside by the Supreme Court.
“A new ward-wise reservation list would be announced soon. We have informed the High Court that the previous list has been withdrawn”, Reddy said. The minister said that the bill pertaining to proposed splitting of BBMP was being pursued by a select committee of the Legislative Council.
Replying to queries, Reddy said the recent announcement of developmental works to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore for Bengaluru was not done with an eye on elections.
“The chief minister has been holding regular review meetings on infrastructure in the City. We have already announced Rs 1,500 crore for Bengaluru in the budget proposal for 2015-16”, he said.
Earlier, several Congress functionaries at the KPCC office tried to impress upon Reddy that party workers should be given preference while giving tickets for BBMP polls. Some legislators were trying to get the tickets to their kith and kin, they pointed out.