Citizens, politicos send 613 objections to BMC on Mumbai’s new ward boundaries

Of the 613 objections received, 575 are for the ward boundaries and 38 objections are on the ward reservations

Ahead of the 2017 municipal elections, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received 613 objections on its delimitation exercise. Earlier in October, the civic body had announced the new ward boundaries and the reservations for wards leading to the mega elections in February.

The civic body had fixed a 15-day window for citizens to send their suggestions and objections. The last day for the objections was October 20. (File photo)

The civic body had fixed a 15-day window for citizens to send their suggestions and objections. The last day for the objections was October 20.

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Of the 613 objections received, 575 are for the ward boundaries and 38 objections are on the ward reservations. The civic officials said that the objections were sent by not just politicians but also by citizens, non-governmental organisations and co-operative housing societies.

There are 227 electoral wards in the city. While the number of wards remained constant, 90% of the ward boundaries were changed landing the corporators in a soup. Many bigwigs from different political parties had their wards distributed in four different wards resulting in them losing their voter base.

With the city population shifting from the island city to the suburbs, seven electoral wards were taken off the city and added to the western and eastern suburbs in the exercise.

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The individuals and groups who sent in their objections will now be called for a hearing. Commenting on this, a senior civic official said, “We are in the process of going through the objections. We will be presenting it to the state election commission which will conduct the hearings.”

The hearings will be held till November 5, after which the commission will take a final call on the ward formations. The final list on Mumbai’s ward formation will be published on November 22.