The delimitation exercise comes after the Central government notified the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022, which proposed the merger of the three erstwhile municipal corporations. (Express File Photo)The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has given the nod for the delimitation process to begin in Delhi with the corporation carving out 250 wards in the national capital based on data from the 2011 Census.
Delhi presently has 70 Assembly segments and the three erstwhile corporations comprised 272 wards — 104 each in the North and South corporations and 64 in the East corporation.
Each assembly constituency shall be divided into a minimum of three wards and the principal of average population may not be maintained throughout, therefore a deviation to the extent of plus minus ten percent may be acceptable to the Central Government, the order said.
The delimitation exercise comes after the Central government notified the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022, which proposed the merger of the three erstwhile municipal corporations and a reduction in the number of councillor seats to “not more than 250 seats” from the existing 272.
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The delimitation committee, which was constituted on July 8, is required to complete the exercise and submit its report within four months from the date of its constitution. The three-member committee is led by State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev.
The order stated that the total population of the corporation (2011 census) shall be divided by the total number of wards and the average population of each ward shall be obtained. The average shall be the guiding factor for delimiting the wards in such a manner that each ward, so far as practicable, has equal population limiting the number of wards to not more than 250, the order informed.
“Boundary ward wards shall be carved out within the boundary of the relevant members of the MLA and shall not cross it,” the order read.
“The number of seats reserved for the members of Scheduled Caste shall bear the same ratio to the total number of seats as the population of Scheduled Castes bears to the total population of Delhi,” the order added.
The unified MCD formally came into existence on May 22 with IAS officers Ashwani Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti assuming charge as its special officer and commissioner respectively.
The erstwhile MCD, established in 1958, was trifurcated in 2012 during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure as the chief minister. It was recently reunified by merging the three civic bodies — North, South and East Delhi municipal corporations or NDMC, SDMC and EDMC.
The Parliament had passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, on April 5 to unify the three civic bodies in the national capital, with the Rajya Sabha giving its nod through a voice vote after negating all the amendments sought by the Opposition. According to the bill, the unification of the municipal corporations will ensure synergised and strategic planning and optimal utilisation of resources.
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