According to a source familiar with developments, the three-member committee constituted recently to delineate wards in the capital has not started work as it is awaiting some clarification from the Centre.
According to the source, the pending clarifications include the total number of wards that are to be excluded from the delimitation exercise, among others. The details are likely to be released by the Center in the coming week, the source said.
“This exercise will be done on the basis of 2011 census data, and the previous delimitation exercise, which was completed in 2016, was done using the same data. We have previous exercise maps and statistics which will be helpful. Only pending specifications are yet to be released for the Center, including the number of wards, before which work cannot start,” the source said.
According to an order dated 8 July, the committee was constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs with State Election Commissioner Delhi, Vijay Dev as its chairman. The committee will have to complete the delimitation exercise and submit its report within four months from the date of issue of the order, which according to the source is “enough time” to redraw the ward boundaries in the city.
Councilor’s seats decreased
The need for the delimitation exercise arose following the Centre’s decision to amend the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act (1957) – including raising the number of councilor seats to “not more than 250” from the existing 272 seats.
The passage of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2022 resulted in the merger of three erstwhile municipal corporations – North, South and East, while civic polls in the national capital were postponed following the Centre’s letter to the State Election Commission. on your plan of integration
Earlier, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had questioned how the committee would work without clarity on the required number of municipal wards, while Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta welcomed the Centre’s order, saying the BJP was ready and citizens Ready to contest elections.