BMC gets lukewarm response for ward demarcation before civic polls

As the civic polls are expected to be held later this year, in June, the BMC had initiated the demarcation of the boundaries in Mumbai’s wards.

Last month, the civic body announced a provisional list of the demarcated wards and invited suggestions and objections from citizens.

This year, the number of BMC’s electoral wards is going to be 227 — same as 2017.

“The number of wards is the same as what it was in 2017. Therefore, there has not been a very high increase in the number of applications received this year,” an official said.

Demarcation of ward boundaries is a process under which the civic administration assesses and evaluates the boundaries of every municipal ward ahead of civic election.

The assessment is done to identify the changes in each municipal ward considering the ongoing demography as well as infrastructure changes which includes making of new roads and bridges to change in population index.

After the demarcation is done, the civic authorities publish a provisional boundary of Mumbai’s wards and invite suggestions and objections from citizens. Following this, a public hearing is held and in the last step the final draft of ward boundaries are published.

This year, former Mumbai municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal was appointed the head of the hearing committee.

In 2022, the Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had increased the number of municipal wards to 236 following which the BMC had received close to 800 applications.

“As per the state government’s orders, all roads, rivers, mountains, railway tracks were visited to decide the ward boundaries. Considering changes on the ground, like new roads, drains expansion, new tracks or other developments, the ward boundaries may change. The suggestions and objections will be considered to check if there has been any mistake,” the official added.

Civic officials said that after the suggestions and objections are concluded, the final list will be published by the first week of October.

After the ward demarcation is finalised, the process for ward reservation will begin. The Supreme Court has directed to continue the OBC reservation in the local body polls as it existed before 2022.

The last BMC elections were held in 2017. The corporators’ term ended in 2022 and since then the corporation has been under the administrative rule.

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