Delhi Delimitation exercise: Each assembly seats to have minimum 3 wards before municipal polls

New Delhi: The delimitation panel has sped up the work of carving out of municipal wards in the national capital and the exercise is expected to be completed by November this year, sources said on Thursday. Under the delimitation exercise, each assembly constituency in Delhi will be divided into a minimum of three wards before the municipal polls are conducted. According to officials, the estimated population in each ward after the delimitation is likely to be kept between 65,000 and 67,000.

Sources aware of the development said that regular meetings are being conducted to fast track the entire exercise. "The process of redrawing of municipal wards is going on at a good pace. It is expected that the exercise will be completed by November 2022. At least two meetings are held every week for better results and to further expedite it," sources told PTI.

They said that the panel is using digitised maps provided by Geospatial Delhi Limited (GSDL) for the delimitation of municipal wards and physical surveys will be conducted only when there is any confusion about wards and population.

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The panel, which was constituted by the Centre last month, has three members- Vijay Dev, the Delhi State Election Commissioner who will be its chairman, Pankaj Kumar Singh, the joint secretary in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Randhir Sahay, the additional commissioner of MCD.

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The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has told the panel that there will only be 250 wards in the city, 22 less than the earlier arrangement. The three erstwhile municipal corporations in Delhi comprised 272 wards, 104 each in the North and South corporations, and 64 in the East.

The Directorate of Census Operations has provided data in respect of the Enumeration Block based on the Census 2011 data. The redrawing of wards is being done on the basis of 2011 census data. Delimitation in Delhi was last conducted in 2016 and the number of wards was kept at 272 with each having an average population of 60,000 considering a variation of 10 to 15 per cent.