Acting on objections raised by residents in a few areas, the ward delimitation committee has decided to reorganise boundaries of some of the newly proposed municipal corporation wards in Chandigarh.
The UT administration on December 9 notified the draft notification for delimitation, increasing the number of wards from 26 to 35. In the committee’s meeting on Tuesday, around 180 objections made to the draft notification were examined and discussed.
“We have proposed that certain urban-planned areas like Modern Housing Complex (Manimajra) and Sector 38 West be shifted out of the wards that mainly include rural and semi-urban areas,” said a UT official privy to the development.
A final report will be prepared by the committee and it will be submitted to the administration for its final approval.
Residents of Modern Housing Complex (MHC), duplex houses, Rajeev Vihar and Uppal Marbel Arch in Sector 13 (Manimajra), having a combined population of around 13,000, had objected to be clubbed with rural areas of Kishangarh and Bhagwanpura under the proposed ward number 4.
“We had contended that there is no contiguity in the proposed ward. Urban and rural areas, which are non-contiguous, have been mixed up,” said Col Gursewak Singh (retd), president, resident welfare association (RWA), MHC.
{{/usCountry}}“We had contended that there is no contiguity in the proposed ward. Urban and rural areas, which are non-contiguous, have been mixed up,” said Col Gursewak Singh (retd), president, resident welfare association (RWA), MHC.
{{/usCountry}}Another proposed ward, number 26, is likely to see its boundaries reworked. RWA of Sector 38 West had objected to being combined with Dadumajra Colony, Dadumajra village and Shahpur Colony.
RWA president Pankaj Gupta said: “Sector 38W is currently with adjacent urban areas in ward number 8. It would lose its urban character if mixed with the semi-urban areas and rural areas.”
“As delimitation exercise has been done keeping in mind similar nature of electorates in a ward, the delimitation committee has tried to maintain homogeneity of the population in a ward, keeping urban areas and rural areas in different wards,” said the UT official, on the condition of anonymity. “The sanctity of the nature of the population has been tried to be kept as much as possible. The demand of these areas were considered in sync with this and so changes are being proposed in the boundary of some of the new wards.”
Currently, there are 26 wards in the MC, which cover the urban sectors and nine villages. The process has become crucial in the wake of the addition of 13 new villages under the jurisdiction of the MC.
“All wards currently don’t have uniform population. This is being corrected through the latest delimitation process. But to keep the urban character of the city intact, the population in some wards will still be higher than in the other wards,” said the official.