The Delimitation Committee met on Thursday to chalk out a strategy for the delimitation of 250 wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). According to officials, each Assembly constituency will be divided into three wards with an estimated population of each ward being between 65,000-67,000.
The commission has sought information regarding the number of polling booths and population data from the office of Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) besides maps of Assembly constituencies from Geospatial Delhi Limited (GSDL) to formulate a plan to redraw the wards in the city.
“The delimitation exercise will be carried out on the basis of the 2011 census data as published by the Census Commissioner General of India. The Directorate of Census Operations, Delhi has provided data in respect of Enumeration Blocks (EBs) based on the Census 2011 data”, said officials.
It was decided that the population of each ward in the corporation shall be considered with a variation of plus or minus 10 per cent. All the wards shall be geographically compact areas and their physical features, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and public convenience would be considered while delimiting them.
GSDL has been asked to provide digitised maps of the Enumeration Blocks (EBs) of Assembly constituencies in the national Capital for assessment of the area and population residing in each Assembly segment. “Similarly, the Chief Electoral Office, Delhi has provided latest electoral rolls along with a list of polling stations and soft copies of maps of Assembly constituencies,” an official said, adding that the CEO’s office and Revenue Department have assured assistance to the Committee through the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration (AEROs) for field inspections, wherever and whenever required.
The Centre had earlier this month 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 has three members — Vijay Dev, the Delhi State Election Commissioner who will be its chairman; Pankaj Kumar Singh, the Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; and Randhir Sahay, the Additional Commissioner of the MCD.
Commissioner, MCD said that the MCD is fully geared up to assist the Committee and provide all logistics and technical support, including field inspections through its staff conversant with such surveys.
The State Election Commissioner stressed on the need to complete the delimitation work in a time-bound manner and said that all key stakeholders have been asked to work non-stop for furtherance of the objective of the Delimitation Committee.
The official said the Ministry of Home Affairs had on July 22, through an order, informed delimitation commission that number of wards in Delhi would be 250 and the redrawing of wards should be done accordingly.