THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state will have 1,712 new wards in the local body elections due later this year. The total number of wards across the state has gone up to 23,612 with the delimitation commission, headed by State Election Commissioner A Shajahan, completing the exercise of remapping the boundaries of civic bodies in all 14 districts. Prior to this, the total number of wards was 21,900.
While the number of wards in the 87 municipalities increased to 3,241 from 3,113, that in the six corporations went up to 421 from 414. The 941 grama panchayats now have 17,337 wards -- compared to 15,962 earlier -- and the number of wards in the 152 block panchayats rose to 2,267 from 2080. The 14 district panchayats now have 346 wards, the previous figure being 331.
The state government had issued a notification last year revising the number of wards. This was based on the 2011 census. The ward delimitation was carried out after conducting a hearing of all petitioners and examining all the complaints and objections that were filed.
In a first, the commission used open source software-based Qfield app for the delimitation exercise to map ward boundaries, Shajahan said. The digital maps can be utilised by the government, local bodies and other agencies for planning and development purposes, he said.
The notification forming the delimitation commission was issued in June 2024. The exercise was conducted in three phases. The first phase comprised wards in the grama panchayats, municipalities and corporations. The second and third phases pertained to block panchayat wards and district panchayat wards respectively.
After holding public hearings on the draft notifications, the commission had published the final notifications on the ward delimitation in grama panchayats on May 19 and in municipalities and corporations on May 27. The final notification for the block panchayats was issued on July 10 and for the district panchayat wards on Tuesday.
Ward delimitation was not carried out in Cherpulassery municipality and Thrikkadeeri panchayat in Palakkad district as the wards in these two local bodies were reorganised in 2015.