Political leaders expressed apprehensions about under-representation of Dalits and unequal distribution of development funds as the Delimitation Committee created wards with less than 40,000 to 89,000 people.
Political leaders expressed apprehensions about under-representation of Dalits and unequal distribution of development funds as the Delimitation Committee created wards with less than 40,000 to 89,000 people.
Days after the Center notified the final report on delimitation of municipal wards, three major political parties in the city – Congress, BJP and AAP – have begun the exercise.
The parties have expressed concern over issues such as “under-representation of Dalits”, unequal distribution of development funds and “inequality” in terms of population of the wards. The Delhi unit of the Congress recently filed a petition in the High Court challenging the final report and seeking a new delimitation exercise.
MHA guidelines
As per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the average population per ward – which is 65,679 – may not be maintained for the entire time and there may be a deviation of plus or minus 10% of the average population of the area. acceptable.
While the final delimitation report pointed out variations from this benchmark, the delimitation committee has created a ward with a population of 40,467 (Kanjhawala) and another ward (Mayur Vihar Phase 1) with a population of 88,878 people. ,
With the Center notifying the amendments Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957In May, a plan to redraw the boundaries of the new wards under the jurisdiction of the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), amalgamating the three erstwhile municipal corporations and reducing the total number of wards to 250 (from 272). There was a new exercise. ,
On July 8, a three-member delimitation committee was constituted by the Center and given four months to complete the exercise based on 2011 census data. The Center confirmed the final report on October 17 through a gazette notification, paving the way for civic polls, which are expected to be held before the end of the year.
Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar, who has filed a petition against the delimitation process, alleged that the delimitation committee deliberately merged several wards, which have a high proportion of Scheduled Caste (SC) voters, to reduce the representation of Dalits.
He cited the example of Trilokpuri assembly (SC-reserved) constituency. “As per the formula adopted for calculating the allocation, it should have four wards, but only three wards have been allotted,” Mr. Kumar said. Also, out of the four wards in the constituency, the delimitation committee opted to merge two wards with high proportion of Dalits – Trilokpuri (East) and Trilokpuri (West) into one ward (Trilokpuri), he said. The resulting ward has 88,792 people, of which the Scheduled Caste population is 47,282.
‘No ulterior motive’
Officials familiar with the drafting of the final report said the exercise was “not politically motivated”.
“As far as the alleged mismatch in population size in some wards is concerned, it was present earlier also. It did not arise from the latest exercise,” said an official familiar with the exercise, adding, “We tried to follow the guidelines wherever possible.
Another party – the AAP – has raised issues relating to the loss to wards with a larger population than those with fewer residents, given the fact that all wards will receive equal development funds.
A BJP leader alleged that it appears that through the final report an attempt was made to help AAP and Congress in areas considered BJP strongholds.