State election body updates list of staff for MCD polls

Officials privy to the matter said that this marks an important step in the preparation for the municipal elections in Delhi which were abruptly postponed in April by the state election commission

The state election commission has initiated the process to update the records of the nodal officers and the polling parties that were collated in January-February when the polling body was expected to announce the schedule for conducting elections to the municipal corporation in Delhi.

More than 1 lakh government employees and workers from various departments are usually put on election duties for the conduct of the MCD elections, a municipal official explained. (HT Photo)

According to a letter to the MCD commissioner, a copy of which HT has seen, the state polling body has asked the civic body if the officials who were enlisted for polling duties were still in office or have retired.

Officials privy to the matter said that this marks an important step in the preparation for the municipal elections in Delhi which were abruptly postponed in April by the state election commission, citing Centre’s intimation that it plans to unify the three municipal bodies in Delhi. The three corporations, that were ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were merged by the Centre in May following an amendment to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.

Following the merger of the three civic bodies, a Centre-appointed panel is redrawing boundaries of the municipal wards in Delhi. Under the new set up, there will be 250 wards in the city, instead of the earlier 272. After the Centre adopts the report by the delimitation commission, it will notify the new wards, the officials added.

Based on the list of new wards, the state election commission will decide the 42 seats that will be reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates, they added.

More than 1 lakh government employees and workers from various departments are usually put on election duties for the conduct of the MCD elections, a municipal official explained. These officials are assigned duties for smooth conduct of elections, management of polling stations and counting process.

Between January-February earlier this year the SEC has issued letters to various government departments for requisition of government officials which will required for conduct of the mammoth exercise. More than 1 lakh government employees and workers from various departments are usually put on election duties for the conduct of the MCD elections, a municipal official explained. These officials are assigned duties for smooth conduct of elections, management of polling stations and counting process.

According to the SEC communication cited above, one polling party consists of five officials with one presiding officer who is a government official of the level of assistant or head clerk, three polling officers who are junior assistants or Grade3/4 workers and one helper. Similarly in case of counting duty parties, duties are assigned to one supervisor, two reception assistants and one helper. In preparation to MCD elections scheduled for April 2022, the three corporations were asked to designate duties for 7500 polling parties ( 37,500 officials) and 900 section officers for supervision. North, South and East MCD were directed to furnish 2500 polling parties each and 300 section officers.

On Thursday, 13th October 2022, an additional deputy commissioner of the election office of MCD has issued an order to all the heads of the departments and zonal deputy commissioners to act on the request made by the state election commission. The official communication states that the election to MCD are due and likely to be held in 2022 or 2023 for which the state election commission has started the process of preparedness. A senior MCD official explained that the MCD election office has designated the assistant commissioner of all the zones to be the nodal officers for updating the details while zonal deputy directors (education) will be the sub-nodal officer for this process.

On March 9, 2022, the state election commission for Delhi had called a press conference to announce the schedule for the MCD polls but in a dramatic turn of events, the election commissioner said the Centre has sent a note expressing its intent to unify the three MCDs, and postpones the announcement of the schedule. The unified MCD came into existence on 22nd May 2022 but the unification act passed by the Parliament also mandated reduction of municipal wards in the city. The process for submitting the suggestions and feedback on the draft delimitation report for 250 MCD wards was completed on 3rd October and the three-member delimitation panel is likely to forward the final report to the central government in next 3-4 days, an SEC official said. Looking at the fast pace of the overall process, several stakeholders have speculated that the election may be held in December later this year.

To be sure, the delimitation report will have to be notified by the central government for the new 250 wards to come into existence after which the state election commission will have to decide the reservation status of these wards. Under the unified set up out of which 42 seats will remain reserved for the members from Scheduled Caste category while 50% of seats in MCD are reserved for female candidates.