Bengaluru: Amid stiff opposition from both BJP and JD(S), the Karnataka government today introduced a bill in the Assembly aimed to trifurcate Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city civic body, after failing to get the Governor’s assent to an ordinance on the issue.

The Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2015, was introduced in the Assembly by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra during the one-day special session of the Karnataka legislature.

As the House met, BJP demanded that the issue of crop damage due to unseasonal rains and hail storms be taken up first.

Leader of the Opposition BJP Jagadish Shettar said the farmers issue due to crop damage should be taken on priority as they were on the verge of committing suicide in some parts. He also charged that Ministers and officials are not visiting affected areas and surveys were not being conducted properly. Relief work was also tardy, he said.

Both BJP and JD(S) members objected to the introduction of the bill, saying the matter was before the court and demanded ruling from the Speaker Kagodu Thimappa.

Thimmappa said the Assembly has the right to legislate, following which Jayachandra introduced the bill and said government’s sole intention is welfare of Bengaluru and its people.

JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy objecting to introduction of the bill questioned the intention behind it. “Does this have any vision?” he asked.

This lead to heated argument between opposition and treasury benches. Intervening, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the House has been convened for the specific purpose of discussing the bill and reminded BJP about how its leaders had advocated for dividing Bengaluru while in power.

He said BBMP is not functioning properly with lots of irregularities and works were not happening on schedule. BBMP had to be divided and decentralised to make it more effective.

(Agencies)

Mangaluru/Bengaluru: The Karnataka state government has decided to convene an emergency session of the Legislative Assembly on April 20 to discuss and pass a Bill on the trifurcation of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

Informing this to the press persons at the Congress Office, Mangaluru on Friday, April 17, MLC Ivan D’Souza said the BJP had only been playing blame game on the BBMP trifurcation issue for political gains despite the fact that it was the then BJP leader Suresh Kumar who had initially mulled for trifurcating the civic body.

“The BJP was happy with the decision back then. However, since we are planning to go ahead with the idea considering overall development of the BBMP and the Bengaluru residents, the BJP and the JD(S) have been opposing it,” he said.

Coming down heavily on JD(S) Supremo H D Devegowda’s move to direct his party functionaries to boycott the Assembly session, D’Souza said that it was against the principles of democracy.

Clearing the air that the move was a ploy to postpone conducting the BBMP elections, he said that the party was not fearing a loss as it had contested numerous elections in which it has enjoyed both success as well as failure. He opined that conducting elections for the BBMP Council will be a waste of time and money if the BBMP is trifurcated. Instead, the state government will supersede the existing BBMP. Hence, the trifurcation is a certainty.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today petitioned Governor Vajubhai Vala requesting him not to approve the proposed ordinance by the government to trifurcate the city and to advise it to hold Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections as directed by the High Court.

BJP leaders led by Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and Former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka, former Ministers Suresh Kumar, Somanna and Arvind Limbavali among others, marched to the Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum to the Governor.

The JDS, led by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, also staged a protest in the city opposing the state government’s move to trifurcate Bengaluru City.

“We understand that the state government is contemplating trifurcation of Bangalore City by issuing an ordinance before the BBMP elections that are due after its dissolution on April 21. The Bangalore city BJP unit strongly condemns the state government’s cavalier approach and its unilateral decision to impose their writ against the wishes of people of Bangalore,” BJP in its memorandum said.

Flaying the ‘haste’ at which the state government was going about on the issue, BJP informed the Governor that the three member committee formed under the Chairmanship of B S Patil (former Chief Secretary) is yet to submit its final report but the state cabinet has approved the trifurcation after hurriedly obtaining an interim report from the panel.

Questioning the state cabinet’s decision to split BBMP into three corporations citing efficient administration and governance, the BJP said it was being done with an ulterior motive to postpone the BBMP elections scheduled for May.

The Karnataka High Court has passed orders to ensure that the BBMP polls are conducted before May 30, 2015, BJP in its memorandum said, adding, that the ordinance route was only aimed at creating legal hurdles for the elections.

(PTI)