The State Election Commission (SEC) finally has announced the schedule for conducting the election of Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG). According to a notification issued by the State Election Commission, the results will also be announced the same day.

The civic polls for the millennium city are being conducted after a delay of over one year.

Vinay Pratap Singh, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Gurugram said that if all goes according to the plan, the election will be conducted on September 24 and the result will be declared on the same day.

“We have completed our task for conducting MCG poll peacefully and appointed Additional Deputy commissioner (ADC) Pradeep Dahiya as returning officer for the purpose. We have also appointed 14 assistant returning officers for smooth election procedures,” Singh said.

Meanwhile, the district administration on Wednesday declared 10 wards that will be reserved for women and this includes wards; 2, 5, 9 ,16, 22, 26, 27,32, 33, and 35. And six wards such as: 1, 7, 11, 17, 21 and 25 have been reserved for scheduled caste candidates. Ward number 1 and 7 are also reserved for women candidates while ward number 24 and 31 are reserved for backward castes.

“The State Government has reserved the post of Mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) for the woman candidate from the Scheduled Caste (SC) category,” the Deputy Commissioner, said.

“We have made 554 booths in 35 wards and have also brought 800 Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) from Jind district to conduct election.  Around 1800 officials will be deputed for the poll duty”, the DC said.

The DC further said that despite EVMs not being equipped with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), district administration is committed to conduct a free and fair election.

 MCG was constituted in 2008 and the first election for 35 wards was conducted in April 2011 for a tenure of 5 years that ended on April 2016. Since then, it was being administered by bureaucrats.

According to Vimal Yadav, a former Mayor, in the first tenure of MCG between 2011 to 2016, the civic body used to spend `300 to 350 crore every year. Some of the key infra projects could not be passed in the absence of public representatives. Now, the bureaucrats are spending only 30 to 40 crore in developmental projects. The city has suffered on that account, the ex mayor said.