Pune: In PMC’s draft delimitation map, Yerwada largest ward, Baner-Sus Mhalunge smallest

As per the instructions of the state Election Commission (SEC), the PMC has published the draft delimitation map of the city for the coming civic elections, and local residents have been invited to file suggestions and objections by February 14.

The public hearings should be completed by February 28 and the expert committee has to submit suggestions by March 2 to the SEC, which will then declare the final map of delimitation for the civic elections.

Going by the draft delimitation map, the Yerwada electoral ward, with 71,390 residents, is the largest while Baner-Sus-Mhalunge ward, with 37,589 residents, is the smallest ward. The approximate population of the city is 35,56,824, including 4,80,017 SC and 41,561 in the ST category, based on the 2011 Census.

Baner-Sus-Mhalunge ward will have two corporators while the other 57 electoral wards will have three corporators each, based on the multi-member electoral ward election system. In the current five-year term, the multi-member ward system has a maximum of four corporators.

The PMC is going to have more women corporators than men as 87 of the 173 seats in the civic body are reserved for women. This is in accordance with the state government legislation to keep 50 per cent seats reserved for women in local civic bodies. Also, 23 seats will be reserved for Scheduled Caste category and two for Scheduled Tribe category. The remaining 148 seats have been kept for open category as the Supreme Court has not allowed political reservation for Other Backward Class category until information on category-wise population is collected by the state government.

A total of 173 corporators will be elected to the civic general body for the next five-year term. The current term of the general body ends on March 15. The civic polls are likely to get delayed due to the pandemic and the state government is likely to appoint an administrator till the election of the new general body.