Mumbai ward boundaries for civic election to be notified by Sept 4 | Mumbai News
Mumbai: The state govt has in its schedule stated that the final ward boundaries for the BMC election will be notified by Sept 4. Apart from the BMC, ward boundaries for Pune and Thane municipal corporations will also be notified by Sept 4, while ward boundaries of other local bodies will be finalised by Sept 1. The state govt has asked all municipal commissioners who were tasked with drawing the ward boundaries to follow the schedule issued by the state urban development (UD) department. According to the schedule, the draft ward boundaries will be published from July 22 to 31. Suggestions and objections will be invited, and they will be given a hearing from Aug 1 to 11.“Taking into account the suggestions and objections, changes will be made, and then the final ward boundaries will be sent to the State Election Commission (SEC). This will be done from Aug 12 to 18. Once the SEC approves the final draft, the new ward boundaries will be notified after approval of the EC. The notification will be published from August 19 to September 4 for Mumbai, Thane, and Pune,” officials said.“Officials are also expected to carry out site visits of the electoral wards to see the on-ground situation and plot the wards on maps. Once that is done, the initial draft will be sent to the SEC. Once the SEC approves it, suggestions and objections will be called. Hearings will be conducted from Aug 1 to 11. Then the revised draft will once again be sent to the SEC for final approval,” the official said.The BMC will have 227 wards in the upcoming election. The state govt early this week decided to go ahead with 227 wards for Mumbai, reversing the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) decision to increase the wards to 236. With no increase in the number of wards, existing boundaries could see some marginal changes by the BMC based on the norms for ward boundary formation laid down by the state govt. The MVA had increased the number of wards to 236, citing an increase in population, but the Mahayuti govt said the latest census figures of 2011 will be considered, and so the number of wards will not be increased. An order issued by the state UD department directing municipal commissioners to finalise the new draft ward boundaries states that ward boundaries can be drawn only as per the latest census. Since this is done on the basis of population, the number of voters or the current number of residents in that area cannot be taken into account.
