Delimitation of wards: Relied on common knowledge,govt tells HC

Meanwhile,none of the 22 deputy commissioners,who are respondents in the case and were issued notices by the court,have filed their replies. The Congress had accused the DCs of arbitrarily rejecting objections to the “fraudulent” exercise of delimitation.

In response to the Congress moving the high court challenging the delimitation of wards for the panchayat elections,the government had reiterated its stand that the houses situated in the gram sabha areas had no numbers. Anupam Gupta,counsel for the Congress,had challenged this on the last date of hearing while terming it as “perjury” on part of the government “at the highest level”.

On Wednesday,an affidavit filed by Director (Rural Development and Panchayats) Dr S Karuna Raju stated: “It is common knowledge that no letter addressed to a person residing in a village bears a house number. The water and electricity bills of persons in rural areas do not bear any house number. Similarly,the addresses in savings bank accounts do not mention any house number.”

It added: “In schemes under the Indira Awas Yojna,when grants are made for construction and repair of houses of BPL families,no house number is mentioned,only the name of beneficiary is given. Even in the resolutions passed by the panchayats for the construction of streets/rains etc in villages,the starting and end point thereof is indicated by the names of the house owners/occupants and no house numbers are given.”

The government added that the houses are listed in order of serial numbers for exercises such as Census operations or for preparation of voter list for Assembly constituencies. “There is no hard and fast rule regarding this listing. During Census operations,an enumerator can start from any point in a village and number the houses falling within his Census block,” the reply added.

Calling it a bluff,the Congress,on a previous hearing,had produced a list of electoral rolls prepared by the State Election Commission,which mentioned house numbers of people residing in villages.

In response,the government had stated: “During preparation of voter lists for assembly constituencies,members of one family unit are assigned one number,which is categorised as a house number. But the house numbers as indicated in the said voter list do not necessarily imply that they are contiguous also.”