Delimitation over: Capital a step close to MCD elections

NEW DELHI: The Union home ministry has issued a notification, marking the completion of the delimitation exercise taken up after the merger of the three municipal corporations in Delhi, and paving the way for holding civic polls in the national Capital.

Officially, Delhi will now have 250 municipal wards, down from the earlier 272.

In a separate notification dated October 17, MHA also delegated the powers held by the central government under section 5 sub-section-2 (c), (d) and (e) clauses of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 to the state election commission. These clauses pertain to the determination of the wards reserved for SC community members, women candidates and the manner in which the seats will be rotated for holding elections.

Senior officials aware of the matter on Tuesday said that the second notification will enable the state election commission to identify the wards that will be reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates -- an important step for holding the elections.

A senior officer associated with the delimitation exercise said that minor changes have been carried out in the report submitted by the commission to the home ministry. “After considering the feedback from the stakeholders changes have been incorporated in eight wards for the goal of moderating the population in wards with very high and very low population,” the official said.

The ministry of home affairs constituted a three-member panel for carrying out delimitation of the municipal wards in Delhi on July 8, 2022 with a goal to reduce the number of wards in the city from 272 to 250. The commission was asked to complete the exercise within four months.

“All the objections have been examined and the draft order has been amended wherever it was required, feasible and justified on reasonable grounds,” said the first MHA notification.

Municipal elections in Delhi were abruptly postponed in March when the Centre announced that it has decided to merge the three civic bodies -South Delhi Municipal Corporation, North Delhi Municipal Corporation and East Delhi Municipal Corporation -- into a unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The new civic body came into existence in May after the Parliament amended the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was running away from the electoral contest, and since then has been demanding that municipal elections should be announced soon. The BJP, which has ruled the municipal bodies in Delhi for 15 years, has maintained that the unification of the three civic bodies was necessary to bring financial and administrative reforms.

THE UNION HOME MINISTRY ISSUED 2 NOTIFICATIONS, MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE DELIMITATION EXERCISE FOR MCD