Councillors move poll panel over SC seats

A section of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) councillors on Monday approached the state election commission and asked it not to rotate seats for Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the coming municipal elections.

A section of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) councillors on Monday approached the state election commission and asked it not to rotate seats for Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the coming municipal elections.

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In a letter to the commission, the councillors said a mistake has been made in reserving the East of Kailash seat for Scheduled Castes. They said if one goes by the seat selection formula, Sangam Vihar should have been reserved.

Mahender Kaur Narula, councillor from East of Kailash, said Sangam Vihar has a bigger percentage of SC population. "While East of Kailash has 12.58% SCs, Sangam Vihar has 13.63%," she said.

This year, the election commission has reserved one ward each from the 46 legislative assembly constituencies having the highest number of SC population. 24 of the seats have been reserved for women SC candidates.

Other councillors said the election commissioner has ignored the Metropolitan Magistrate's order that says SC seats cannot be rotated.

"There is a court order saying that the status of SC wards should not be changed as the criteria of choosing them is based on the population of SC people in the ward. This year, because of a change in the formula, several wards with very insignificant number of SC population have ended up being reserved," said Jagdish Mamgain, a councillor.

Election Commissioner Rakesh Mehta said the commission will consider the request. "If we have committed a mistake we will rectify it but the formula for selecting SC wards was made based on a judgment of the court. She (Narula) had complained that wrong facts and figures were taken into consideration. We will certainly look into it and respond positively," he said.