Municipal elections scheduled for April next year are expected to have about 150 of the 272 wards with totally new geographical boundaries in the national Capital. The State Election Commission, entrusted with the job of the delimitation exercise, has prepared a draft report on the same and has invited objections and suggestions from political parties, aspiring municipal poll candidates and public latest by September 24. This time, the new wards are being carved out on the basis of the population size of about 60,000 people as per the 2011 Census.
The commission carried out the exercise on the directions of lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung, who was entrusted by the Centre to demarcate new wards as per the provisions of Sections 3 and 5 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.
The last delimitation of MCD wards carried out in 2007 was based on the 2001 Census. later, 136 wards were increased to 272 after the trifurcation of the municipal corporation in 2012. In the last delimitation exercise, the population size of each ward was about 40,000 and the State Election Commission had created four wards in each of the 70 Assembly seats of Delhi.
The draft report suggests that the number of wards in each of the Assembly segments is bound to vary from two to seven in Delhi. For instance, Matiala Assembly seat that has a population of 4,26,760 can now boast of having a maximum of seven municipal wards and Jangpura constituency having a population of 1,50,049 can just end up having just three wards.
There are about two dozen Assembly segments which will end up having four municipal wards in their jurisdiction. In the Delhi Municipal Corporation (South), both Vikaspuri and Matiala Assembly constituencies are likely to have seven wards each in their jurisdiction. While the Badarpur seat may have six wards, Okhla constituency is set to have five wards. Among the constituencies which are likely to have three wards are Rajouri Garden, Hari Nagar, Tri Nagar, Jangpura, Kasturba Nagar, Malviya Nagar, RK Puram, Mehrauli, Ambedkar Nagar (SC), Greater Kailash, Kalkaji and Tuglakabad.
In the North Municipal Corporation, the report suggests that Burari and Bawana constituencies are likely to have six wards each; Narela, Rithala, Mundka and Kirari will have five wards each and Adarsh Nagar, Tri Nagar, Wazirpur, Model Town, Chandni Chowk, Ballimaran, Karol Bagh (SC), Moti Nagar and Rajinder Nagar may end up having three wards each in their jurisdiction.
In the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, Gokalpur (SC), Mustafabad and Karawal Nagar Assembly segments are likely to have five wards each while Gandhi Nagar may end up with having only three wards.
The nomenclature of the remaining wards is not going to change.
The boundaries of the municipal wards are being demarcated in accordance with railway lines, Delhi Metro network, roads, rivers and major drains. But this time the commission would ensure that the villages falling under lal dora are not demarcated as per small roads which divide them.
Once the new wards are fully demarcated, it is going to be a testing time for all political outfits as they will have to devise new strategies to contest in each ward in the April 2017 municipal elections.
“Since the nomenclature of a large number of wards is bound to change, we will have to choose candidates according to new caste and religious formations in each ward,” a local politician told The Pioneer.