Delimitation of Municipal Wards in Delhi to Be Completed by October End: Officials

The work of redrawing the boundaries of municipal wards in Delhi is inching towards its completion as the delimitation panel is all set to submit its final report to the Centre next week, officials said. The delimitation process will be formally completed by the October end as after submission of the final delimitation report, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will issue a notification or an order and the exercise of delimitation of municipal wards in Delhi will be completed, they said.

They said that the process to finalise the report after addressing the queries and suggestions on the draft report of the delimitation is in its last leg. "The process to finalise the report is going on at a good pace. Nearly 8-10 teams have been engaged in the work of disposing off the suggestions and observations on the draft report. It will soon be completed and the final delimitation report will be sent to the MHA next week after which the Centre will issue a notification in connection with the completion of delimitation process," an official involved in the process of delimitation of municipal wards told PTI.

The central government has fixed the total number of seats in MCD at 250 from the existing 272. The Delimitation Committee has received 1,720 suggestions and objections on the draft report on the delimitation of wards in Delhi.

The last date to submit the suggestions and objections on the draft report was October 3. The delimitation panel had put the draft report in public domain on September 13.

The official said apart from political parties, suggestions were also received from Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), NGOs and the general public. Most of these suggestions were relating to either changing the ward boundaries or name changing. We are considering all these requests and will be disposed off according to guidelines. After disposal of all these queries the report will be sent and the central government will issue final delimitation order afterwards, the official said.

The MHA had in July this year set up a three-member panel for a fresh delimitation of the municipal wards in Delhi that will pave the way for the first civic polls since the reunification of the city's three corporations. The panel comprises Delhi State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev as its chairman, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Pankaj Kumar Singh and Additional Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Randhir Sahay.

The total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes members in the MCD in proportion to their numbers is fixed at 42. The three erstwhile municipal corporations comprised 272 wards 104 each in the North and South corporations and 64 in the East.

Delimitation exercise in Delhi was last conducted in 2016 and the number of wards was kept at 272 with each having an average population of 60,000 considering a variation of 10 to 15 per cent. Municipal polls were slated to be held in Delhi in April this year. Due to the Centre's plan to reunify the three civic bodies, the polls were put on hold hours before the then Delhi State Election Commissioner S K Srivastava was to announce the schedule on March 8.

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