2011 census will stop ward splits

BANGALORE: The government's ambitious plans to give birth to a new district and several taluks will have to wait for more than a year if the process is not completed by this year-end. For Bangalore too, there can be no more changes in ward delimitation.
For the ensuing 2011 census, operations will commence next year all over the country. As a rule, any administrative changes in boundaries of districts, taluks, villages and wards will have to be stopped one year prior to it.
On September 22, the registrar general and census commissioner of India had sent across communications to chief secretaries of states planning to hold delimitation processes, stating: "There will be no administrative changes in the boundaries after December 31, 2009, till March 31, 2011." This means, any delimitation process should be completed before December 31 -- with the final notification issued and gazetted.
Since all delimitation exercises are based on the census enumeration blocks and the current one is as per 2001 census, the census commissioner has put a full-stop to it for the time being.
WHAT'S WITH KARNATAKA?
The state has already announced a new district, Yadgir, by bifurcating Gulbarga, which is Karnataka's biggest district. The policy process hasn't been finalized yet, even as the government is pinning hopes on the inaugural date of the 30th district on October 31.
This apart, nearly 136 new taluks are in the pipeline, to add to the existing 176. The Taluk Reorganisation Committee is studying the pros and cons of such a move before submitting its report. New taluks are being demanded in Belgaum, Uttara Kannada, Bijapur, Haveri, Gadag, Dharwad and Bagalkot.
The committee will consider economic trade links, communication, geographical, historical, cultural and political aspects of the place before submitting its recommendations.
"If the final notification for Yadgir is issued shortly and gazetted, the new district will be born. As far as the 136 taluks are concerned, the proposals are still in a nascent stage. The committee has to give its recommendations, the government has to decide, draft and issue the final notification. This may not be possible before December-end," explained officials.
Since Bangalore has already completed delimitation of 198 wards, any further changes will have to be frozen before the end of 2009.