Delhi State Election commission receives 650 objections over delimitation

NEW DELHI: After the Delhi state election commission gave two weeks’ time to the public and elected representatives to raise any objections pertaining to the delimitation exercise, the election commission has received 650 objections.
Rakesh Mehta, Delhi state election commissioner, said that they have received 650 objections and it will take at least one month to finalize the delimitation exercise, which will have a great impact on the upcoming municipal election of 2017.The municipal poll of 2017 will see a major contest between the three big parties – AAP, BJP and Congress.
“We were expecting around 200-250 objections but 650 is too much and we at least need a month to see what we can do. Most of the people have requested to keep the number of wards per constituency same as what it is now but we cannot do that. Due to the drastic population shift we are left with no option but revise the boundaries of every ward to balance the number of voters,” said Mehta.
In the first week of September, the Delhi state election commission had uploaded the final draft of delimitation exercise on Delhi government website and gave time till September 24 for the public and elected representatives to raise objections.
Mehta said as a result of the drastic change in population there are several issued that are cropping up. “There are issues with Resident Welfare Associations. Members of RWAs of every colony are scattered all across their ward but now most of these colonies will be split to balance the voters. Now many RWAs are complaining about this. We are looking at compactness and in a bid to do that boundaries of many colonies will change and there are chances one part of a colony will fall in one ward and other part in a different ward,” he said.
Mehta further said that there is only one constituency Matiala which will have seven wards, the most in the entire city. While constituencies like Mundka, Burari, Badarpur and Vikaspuri will have six wards each and nine other constituencies will have 5 wards each.
These nine constituencies include Narela, Badli, Rithala, Kirari, Uttam Nagar, Najafgarh, Bijwasan, Okhla and Deoli that will have 5 wards each. Presently, every constituency has four wards.
Mehta said the exercise is to ensure each ward have an average population of 60,000 people (10% plus minus) but due to the drastic population shift few wards may have more voters than the others and this is done to ensure the total number of wards (272) in Delhi does not change.
“If we go by exact calculation then Delhi will have a total of 277 wards instead of the existing 272 wards. But we cannot allow that as the Act clearly states we cannot change the total number of wards. So in many constituencies few wards have population more than other wards but we have to do that to ensure there is no discrepancy in the distribution of wards,” said Mehta.
He further added that the final proposition will be ready after at least one month considering the number of objections they have received; it will take some more time to incorporate them.