Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal welcomed the decision by the central government but questioned the mandate of the panel. “
The number of wards in the city will go down as the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act 2022, which has been cleared by Parliament in April, states that the number of wards under the new set-up will not exceed 250.
In one of the first steps critical to holding civic polls in the Capital, the Union ministry of home affairs has constituted a three member panel for carrying out delimitation of the municipal wards in Delhi.
According to an order dated July 8, 2022, the panel which will redraw the boundaries of the municipal wards in the city after the three civic bodies in Delhi were merged into one body is expected to submit its report and recommendations within four months.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 section 3A and 5 of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957, the central government constitutes a committee to assist the central government in carrying out the delimitation of wards and other incidental functions related to it,” the order issued by MHA joint secretary (Union Territory) Ashutosh Agnihotri said.
According to the order, the panel will be chaired by Vijay Dev, state election commissioner of Delhi. The other two members will be Pankaj Kumar Singh, joint secretary in Union ministry of housing and urban affairs and Randhir Sahay, MCD additional commissioner.
The order, however, does not specify the exact number of wards that will be carved out in the exercise.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal welcomed the decision by the central government but questioned the mandate of the panel. “We are happy that the central government has constituted the committee for delimitation of MCD wards. But, it did not specify the number of wards to be created in Delhi. How will the committee work?”, Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
AAP MLA Atishi said this is another attempt to delay the elections. “The most important decision that needed to be taken was to fix the number of wards to be constituted in Delhi.But it has not been mentioned in the order issued by MHA. Without the number of wards being specified, the order for setting up a delimitation commission remains hollow,” she said.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor described it as an immature reaction. “Till yesterday, the AAP leaders were asking when will the Centre form the delimitation committee for MCD, and now when it has been announced they are crying why its terms and conditions have not been issued. The Delhi government and the AAP leaders should at least be mature enough to understand that now that the delimitation committee has been formed the Union home ministry will issue its terms and conditions,” he added.
The Centre had amended the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, which governs the working of the civic body in Delhi, in April. According to the draft bill of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022, there will be one municipal corporation in Delhi, and the total number of wards in the unified MCD will not exceed 250 wards. Currently, the number of total MCD wards in Delhi is 272.
Elections to the three municipal corporations were dramatically delayed in March, when the state election commission announced during a press conference, which was called to announce the schedule for the polls, that the Centre intends to unify the three civic bodies. Elections were scheduled to be held in April.
This led to a major tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party that was ruling the three MCDs for the past three consecutive terms. The AAP questioned the timing of the move and said that the BJP was afraid of facing them in the elections. The BJP, however, said that the unification will rid the civic bodies of an acute financial crunch and improve administration.
Attacking the BJP during his speech in the Delhi assembly on July 5, Kejriwal said, “We know BJP will not let MCD elections take place. We will have to take up this matter in the court of law. BJP can do whatever it wants, but the AAP will not let it sabotage democracy. We will get elections held whatever it takes.”
When asked how much time the exercise can take, Subhash Arya, former mayor and veteran councillor who has been associated with MCD for over 25 years, said that based on previous experiences of delimitation exercises, the elections cannot be practically held before 2023.
AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak said that the election should be held as early as possible. “The Centre should first announce the number of wards it intends to have in Delhi. Only then the process will start meaningfully. It is an eyewash. All these are unnecessary steps. Elections should be announced soon,” he added.
Expert speaks
Constitutional expert and former secretary to Lok Sabha and Delhi assembly, SK Sharma said that change in number and boundaries of wards is a lengthy and complicated process. “The commission will first submit a draft based on its recommended number of wards and their boundaries after which it will be put in the public domain to seek suggestions and objections. The prospective candidates, MLAs, MPs and RWAs usually put up several objections and suggestions to add and remove colonies from their wards depending on their own considerations. This objection and revision phase takes considerable time. Normally, such delimitation commissions were given 6-12 months time or time limits were not explicitly mentioned but it seems that the Centre wants it to be a time-bound process by specifying a limit of four months,” he said.
