Delhi SEC to take fresh call on civic boundaries

New Delhi: After notifying the delimitation report, the Delhi State Election Commission (DSEC) is reportedly going to take a fresh call on redrawing the geographical boundaries of 18-odd municipal wards in the national capital. The commission is also planning to reserve 46 wards for the Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates in the different Assembly constituencies.

At an all-party meeting on Friday, DSEC chairperson Sanjay Kumar Srivastava reportedly assured the leaders that he will be taking a fresh look on the 18-odd wards whose boundaries have crossed the limits of their respective Assembly segments. He is learnt to have assured the leaders that he would also be considering the suggestion to reserve only one ward for the SC candidates in one Assembly seat.

Sources said that leaders from different political outfits apprised the DSEC about the 18 to 19 municipal wards whose boundaries have crossed the limits of their respective Assembly seats. As per the new delimitation report, parts of Sector 5 of Narela figure in Bawana, some areas of Mundka have become part of Kirari and Nangloi, some areas of Dwarka West Parliamentary seat figure in South Delhi Lok Sabha seats, few areas of Trilokpuri figure in Kondli and Patparganj, and some parts of Kondli itself are now part of Patparganj area.

When Mr Srivastava told the leaders that the delimitation report had already been notified and he could not affect any new changes in it, Congress leader Chattar Singh showed him an order by Raj Niwas in which the lieutenant-governor had clearly stated that if questions related to boundaries of wards arise after notification, the SEC can inquire and decide the matter. Following this, Mr Srivastava said that he would once again take a fresh look into the matter.

As Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijendra Gupta apprised the DSEC that seats should be reserved on the basis of the ward population and not on the basis of the population of the Assembly constituencies.

The secretary to the commission said that seats would only be reserved ward-wise. The DSEC secretary clarified that some Assembly seats had only three wards, while many others had as many as seven wards.

“That’s precisely why seats will be reserved on the basis of the population of the wards alone,” the commission secretary reportedly told the party leaders.

At this, the Congress leader suggested that only one seat should be reserved in one Assembly segment in order to give a fair representation to the SC community across the city. In the 2007 civic polls, two wards were reserved in one Assembly segment.

In the forthcoming civic polls in April, 20 wards will be reserved for SC candidates in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, 15 wards in the South Municipal Corporation, and 11 wards in the East Municipal body. Delhi has a total of 16.7 per cent population of the SC community. There are about 19.38 per cent SC voters in North, about 14.15 per cent in South, 16.58 per cent in East, and 14.15 per cent in the South Delhi municipal body.

Of the 272 municipal wards, both North and South Corporations have 104 wards each under their jurisdiction and South Municipal Corporation has just 64 wards under its jurisdiction. About 50 per cent of the total municipal wards in Delhi will be reserved for women candidates.

As per the new delimitation report, only 31 of the 70 Assembly seats have four municipal wards under their respective geographical boundaries as the remaining 148 municipal wards will have new peripheries across the city. These wards have been carved out on the basis of each having a population size of 60,000 people. But in 2007, each of the existing 272 municipal wards had been carved out on the basis of the population size of 40,000 people.