Delimitation pUsh for mUnicipal Wards
Delhi State EC recently released a list of possible changes in the boundaries of the 272 existing municipal wards for all three MCDs.
Keeping in mind the increase in Delhi’s population, the Delhi State Election Commission is continuing with a delimitation process it had started in October last year. The poll panel recently released a list of possible changes in the boundaries of the 272 existing municipal wards for all three municipal corporations in Delhi — East, North and South. The move comes ahead of the MCD elections to be held next year.
According to 2011 Census data, Delhi’s population rose from 1.34 crore in 2001 to 1.64 crore in 2011. This increase has also resulted in the change of the population demographics in several Assembly constituencies. For example, constituencies like Bawana and Vikaspuri have seen a significant rise in population, while constituencies like Ballimaran and Matiala have seen a drop in their population. Thus, according to the principles adopted for delimitation, the average population of each ward is kept at 60,000 and the boundaries of the wards have been redrawn from within the boundaries of the existing Assembly constitu- encies with the use of geospatial maps and data from the 2011 Census of India.
Rakesh Mehta, Delhi State Election Commissioner, told The Sunday Guardian, “This is a regular phenomenon. Delimitation is carried out after every 10 years and the current delimitation exercise would be effective for the 2017 MCD elections. The delimitation of the municipal wards is being carried out under Section 3 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.”
“We are redrawing the boundaries of the existing wards on the basis of the increase or decrease of population in the particular Assem- bly segment and thus the size of the wards would vary, but the number of wards would mostly remain the same,” Mehta added.
According to the list released by the Delhi State Election Commission, the boundaries of almost all the municipal wards from all the three MCDs have been redrawn. Significant changes are in Chandni Chowk, Burari and Matia Mahal (all in North MCD), where the number of wards has been reduced from four to 2.54, 6.06, 2.86 respectively, while in South MCD, the number of wards in the Matiala constituency has been increased from four to 7.11 and in Jangpura four to 2.5.
The Baburpur constituency in East MCD is the only constituency that would not see any changes in the number of wards.
The Delhi State Election Commission had begun the delimitation process for all the 272 wards in the three MCDs in October last year through a committee constituted under the chairmanship of the State Election Commissioner. The year-long process would likely come to an end with the notification of the changes in the boundaries of all the wards by July this year.