18 corporators elected to top panel for City's development

The process to form the Bangalore Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC) began on Wednesday, with 18 corporators being elected its members. Regional Commissioner M V Jayanthi conducted the proceedings. 

The 18 corporators are Mayor B N Manjunath Reddy, Floor Leader of the Palike council R S Satyanarayana, M K Gunashekar, R Sampath Raj, Nausheer Ahmed, Mamatha K M, R Padmavathi Amarnath, K Umesh Shetty, Manjula N Swamy, M Nagaraj, K Poornima, M Venkatesh, S Sampath Kumar, K Narasimha Naik, Shashirekha M, V V Satyanarayana, B M Shobha Muniram and Gangamma. 

Delayed by almost one-and- a-half-hours, the election process went off smoothly.

 The administration had deployed a good number of police personnel, fire tenders and erected barricades. The process started around 11.30 am with Jayanthi announcing receiving nomination from 18 corporators. The corporators were given five minutes to withdraw their candidature. When nobody came forward, they were declared elected unopposed. 

The committee will have a total of 30 members. Other members will be chief minister, minister for urban development, principal secretary to urban development department, one representative from Government of India, commissioners of Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), BBMP, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), chairperson of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), director of Town and Country Planning Department, finance secretary and two elected members of Bengaluru Urban zilla panchayat. 

Objection raised Soon after the council proceedings began, leader of the opposition BJP in the Palike council, Padmanabha Reddy, demanded when the election to the chairperson of the BMPC will take place. He lamented that the BMPC formed during the previous Palike council never met because the chairperson was not elected from among the members. 

Jayanthi replied that the resolution passed by the council would be sent to the government, and kick-started the proceedings.