Centre clears way for delimitation of Delhi wards paving way for MCD polls

New Delhi, Oct 19: The Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday issued the final gazette notification for redrawing municipal wards in Delhi, paving the way for civic polls in the national capital.

According to the 800-page gazette notification by MHA stated that the number of municipal wards in Delhi will now be 250. Before the reunification of the municipality municipal corporations, there used to be 272 wards.

"Delimitation Committee has completed its exercise with regard to preparation of the draft Delimitation order and submitted its report to the Central Government on August 12, 2022," the notice read.

Municipal elections in the city are due since April this year. The BJP, which was ruling the three municipal corporations in Delhi for over a decade before their reunification, the AAP, and the Congress have already started preparation for the polls.

The delimitation committee submitted to the Centre its final report on redrawing the wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Monday, news agency PTI reported.

According to civic officials, following the gazette notification, the delimitation exercise should be understood to be completed.

The Ministry of Home Affairs in July this year set up a three-member panel for a fresh delimitation of the municipal wards in Delhi.

The delimitation exercise in Delhi was last conducted in 2016 and the number of wards was kept at 272 with each having an average population of 60,000 considering a variation of 10 to 15 per cent.

Municipal polls were slated to be held in Delhi in April this year. They were put on hold hours before then Delhi State Election Commissioner S K Srivastava was to announce the schedule on March 8 due to the Centre's plan to reunify the three civic bodies.