Image used for representational purpose only. (File photo | AP)
NEW DELHI: The three-member panel tasked with carrying out delimitation of municipal wards in the city on Thursday met the stakeholder agencies and decided to use the 2011 population census data to carve out 250 wards, said officials.
According to officials, Geospatial Delhi Limited (GSDL) services will be taken to map the areas while State Election Commission (SEC) officials have been directed to provide the latest voters’ data of the city. Since 2011, no population census has been carried out for Delhi or across the country.
“Each assembly constituency shall be divided into a minimum of three wards and the boundary of a ward will be within the boundary of the relevant assembly constituency. As far as possible all wards will be geographically-compact. The average size should be or above 65,000, with a margin of plus or minus 10,000, as a 10% variation in the population figures can be allowed,” said a senior official.
The panel was set up by the Centre on July 8 to carry out the delimitation exercise in Delhi, mandated by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022, paving the way for the much-delayed civic polls. The committee is required to complete the exercise and submit a report within four months from the date of its constitution.
Officials said that all the stakeholder agencies including census directorate, GSDL and Delhi government departments have already been directed to assist the panel in redrawing the boundaries of the wards. “The state election office has been asked to provide the number of voters per booth across the city. Boundaries of all wards will be clearly defined along with physical landmarks such as railway lines, bridges or drains thereof to avoid any confusion,” said another MCD official. It was also decided that lower-rung pockets such as an unauthorised colony or a jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) cluster would be kept within the boundary of each ward so that it’s evenly distributed across all constituencies.
As per 2011 Census, Delhi has a total population of 16,787,941 comprising 8,987,326 males and 7,800,615 females. Officials said that the overall percentage of Scheduled Caste (SCs) in Delhi is 16.73 per cent while at least 50 per cent of the wards will be reserved for women. It was also decided that the number of seats reserved for members of the SC shall bear the same ratio to the total number of seats as the population of SC bears to the total population of the national capital.
