With the delimitation commission being formed to redraw boundaries of wards in a step towards holding elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), it would be a race against time to finish the exercise within the four-month deadline. Officials privy to the commission’s functioning said services of Geospatial Delhi Limited, which has digitised maps of each area of the national capital, would be used. To carry out a ground survey, a senior official said municipal staff will be roped in to expedite the process. On Saturday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) set up a three-member commission for the delimitation of municipal wards. According to the order, the panel will be chaired by Vijay Dev, state election commissioner of Delhi. The other two members are Pankaj Kumar Singh, joint secretary in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Randhir Sahay, MCD additional commissioner. Sources said the commission will submit a draft of boundaries being redrawn and the recommended number of wards, which will be released in the public domain to seek suggestions and objections from MPs, MLAs, councilors and RWAs. “After considering objections and suggestions, and taking into consideration genuine ones, a revision will be done,” the official said. He said normally the whole process takes at least a year’s time, but the commission would try to finish it in a time-bound manner using services of municipal staff. In 2016, when delimitation was carried out last, the average population of each ward was to be 60,000 with a variation of 10% to 15%. It was also specified that the ward should lie within an assembly constituency. A colony or slum cluster could not fall in two different wards and each ward had to be clearly defined along roads/drains/railway lines so that there is no confusion, as per the process. Following the announcement, a war of words ensued between the AAP and BJP. CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Saturday, “We are happy that the central government has constituted a committee for ward delimitation of MCD. But no order was made on how many wards there would be in Delhi. Then how will this committee work?” To which Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor responded, “Till yesterday, AAP leaders were crying and asking when the Centre will form a delimitation committee… now when it has been announced, they are crying about why its terms and conditions have not been issued. They should understand that now that the committee has been formed, the MHA will duly issue its terms and conditions on the number of wards, which will not exceed 250.” Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta, while hailing the home ministry’s decision, said this step will go a long way in strengthening the unified corporation and benefit Delhiites. “Now the corporation will be able to function more smoothly,” he said. The MCD polls, originally scheduled for April, were put off hours before the election schedule was to be announced. The election was called off as the BJP-led central government planned to unify the MCDs and conduct delimitation to decrease the number of wards. As per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Amendment Act, the number of seats in the unified corporation will not be more than 250. There are currently 272 wards – 104 each in the erstwhile North and South corporations and 64 in the East corporation – which necessitates a delimitation exercise.
