Poll delay upsets Bengaluru

Feb. 8: Citizens are dismayed as the state government sought six more months’ time to conduct the elections to the BBMP council. Among its reasons are giving people time to file their objections to the new list of ward reservations, the census exercise which begins in March, and the April examinations in schools and colleges.
Some of them felt that a corporation council should be in place as early as possible to address the problems of a growing city like Bengaluru.
Leaders of the Opposition parties felt it was a ploy of the ruling BJP to save itself from embarrassment after a dismal show in governance.
“If matters are to go the way they are now, the future of Bengaluru is bleak. Unless we get an elected body in place for the city, there will be no infrastructural development. Civic issues will be left unattended,” Mithlesh S, a resident of Indiranagar, said.
Excise& IT minister Katta Subramanya Naidu said he was not aware of the developments in the BBMP poll case as he was away in Kolar attending a function.
Additional advocate general K.M. Nataraj who appeared for the state, said in an interlocutory application (IA) in the high court that it would be difficult to hold the elections for the next few months as the BBMP election officer would be in charge of the census in the city and teachers would be involved in it, leaving them little time for poll work.
The IA also gave the anticipated scarcity of power and water in May as another reason and argued that June was not a good time either as schools and colleges reopened then.
The Supreme Court had on January 28 lifted its stay on the Karnataka High Court order to redo the reservation lists for the BBMP poll and directed the state government to do as told by it.