CUTTACK: A notification issued by the Collector of Puri reducing the number of wards under Puri Municipality from 38 to 32 ahead of the urban body polls has come under the scrutiny of the Orissa High Court.
A single-judge bench of Justice Biswanath Rath on Wednesday issued notices to Puri Collector and director, Municipal Administration to file their responses to a petition, filed by Bibhuti Bhusan Sethi and four other former councillors of Puri Municipality challenging the notification.
In an interim order, Justice Rath directed that the Puri administration shall not proceed with the notification reducing the number of wards from 38 to 32 until further orders. Justice Rath fixed March 22 for hearing the matter along with responses to the notices.
As per the petition, in 2018 the number of wards under Puri Municipality was increased from 32 to 38 by bifurcation of some of the wards. A notification to this effect was issued by Puri Collector after the State government gave approval to a resolution passed by the Puri Municipal Council to increase the number of wards from 32 to 38.
Increasing the number of wards to 38 is necessary to bring about a uniform population in the wards. At present, the distribution of population varies from 3,000 to 11,000. Reorganisation of wards into 38 will bring about a uniform population of around 5,000 in each of the wards, the petition said.