Delhi govt issues notification on reservation of municipal wards ahead of civic polls

New Delhi, Oct 21: The Delhi government has issued a notification on reservation of municipal wards for women and persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes, days after the Centre finalised the delimitation process, paving way for the civic polls.

The MCD elections are expected to take place at the fag end of 2022, or early next year.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on October 17 had issued the final gazette notification for redrawing of municipal wards in Delhi, as per which the number of wards in the city has been reduced to 250 from the previous figure of 272 as part of the delimitation exercise.

According to the gazette notification issued by the Delhi government on October 20, out of the 250 wards, 42 shall be reserved for persons belonging to the Scheduled Caste category in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

"And, whereas, section 3 of the said Act (Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957) provides that seats shall be reserved for women belonging to Scheduled Castes, from among the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, which shall not be less than one half of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes. As such, out of the 42 wards, not less than 50 per cent have to be reserved for 'women belonging to Scheduled Castes' which comes to 21 and remaining 21 wards for 'Scheduled Castes'," reads the notification.

"And, whereas, section 3 of the said Act also provides that seats shall be reserved for women, which shall not be less than one half of the total number of seats other than those reserved for Scheduled Castes. As such, the remaining number of wards i.e. 208 have to be divided on the basis of not less than 50 per cent for only 'women' category i.e. 104 wards, and remaining 50 per cent shall be for 'general' category of persons i.e.104 wards," it added.

The erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi was established in April 1957. The civic body was trifurcated as North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations in 2011, which were amalgamated into a unified body in May 2022, assuming again the identity of MCD.

The previous three corporations in Delhi comprised 104 wards each in North and South corporations and the East corporation had 64 wards under its jurisdiction.

As per an older Delhi gazette notification issued on September 10, the central government had fixed the total number of seats in the MCD at 250 as part of the delimitation exercise.

The total number of seats reserved for the members of the Scheduled Castes in the MCD in proportion to their number is also determined to be 42, it had said.