Strict adherence to notified ward boundaries mandatory for GBA city corporation polls

Bengaluru

The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) has made it clear that elections to the five city corporations under its jurisdiction must strictly follow the ward boundaries as notified by the government, Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao said on Monday.

Chairing a review meeting at the GBA head office, Rao issued directions to officials while assessing the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for verifying draft electoral rolls for the five city corporations. He underlined that any deviation from the officially notified ward descriptions would not be permitted during the election process.

To ensure accuracy, the Chief Commissioner directed the IT Department to correct and update ward boundary maps to match the notified descriptions. In the long term, he said, verification of ward boundaries should be undertaken through a systematic field survey to avoid discrepancies.

Rao also ordered the formation of a dedicated election section in each city corporation. Each section will comprise a Tahsildar, a Manager, a First Division Assistant (FDA), a Second Division Assistant (SDA), and a Data Entry Operator to handle election-related work efficiently.

To address data-related issues—such as the total number of polling stations, wards divided within a city corporation, and wards shared between multiple corporations—the Additional Commissioners (Revenue) of all five city corporations were appointed as nodal officers. They will coordinate closely with the GBA Election Section.

Special Commissioner for Elections R Ramachandran stressed the need for strict adherence to a uniform SOP to ensure transparency, accuracy, and credibility in the verification of draft electoral rolls. He also directed officials to conduct complete verification in all wards, with special attention to divided wards, and to examine the “from–to matrix” from the “to” perspective to ensure data consistency and integrity.

The meeting was attended by city corporation commissioners, additional commissioners, senior revenue officials, and representatives from the IT Department.