Delimitation panel meets with stakeholders to chalk out 250 municipal wards

The three-member delimitation committee on Thursday met with stakeholder agencies to initiate the process of constituting 250 new municipal wards under the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)

The three-member delimitation committee on Thursday met with stakeholder agencies to initiate the process of constituting 250 new municipal wards under the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

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An official privy to the panel’s functioning said the meeting saw the participation of officials of the directorate of census operations, Geo-spatial Delhi Limited (GSDL), MCD and the revenue department of the Delhi government and it was decided that the 2011 Census data will be used to demarcate the new wards.

“A variation of 10% will be allowed in population figures and all wards, as far as practicable, will be geographically compact areas with physical features acting as boundaries of administrative units. Each assembly constituency shall be divided into a minimum of three wards and the boundary of a ward will be within the boundary of the relevant assembly constituency,” the official said, asking not to be named.

As per 2011 Census, Delhi has a population of 16,787,941 -- male 8,987,326 and female 7,800,615.

GSDL, which had worked on the previous delimitation exercise in 2016-17, has been tasked with preparing data along with digital maps of the assembly constituencies and wards. “Office of chief electoral officer of Delhi has provided us the latest electoral rolls along with assembly constituency-wise list of polling stations and soft copies of maps of assembly constituencies,” the panel said.

“Delhi had a 16.14% SC (Scheduled Caste) population, as per Census 2011, and correspondingly, around 40 seats will be reserved for SC candidates. The DMC Act mandates that half the seats in the corporation be reserved for women and consequently, 20 seats will be reserved for SC women candidates. Of the remaining 210 general seats, 105 will be reserved for women candidates,” a state election commission official said, asking not to be named

The members said the draft delimitation order will be put in the public domain while giving ample time and fair opportunity to all stakeholders, including the general public, to provide their suggestions and objections.

Three member panel was set up on July 8, 2022, to oversee the process of redrawing the ward boundaries as mandated by the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022, which was cleared by Parliament in April this year.

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