Friday, 23 AUGUST 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) has received 101 objections regarding the delimitation of wards in the city so far. The last date for raising objections regarding the delimitation is August 23, the municipal commissioner Gaurav Kumar said. The objections are part of the ongoing delimitation process which are crucial for upcoming municipal elections. The majority of objections were filed from the Rajpur and Dharampur Assembly constituencies, with 31 and 39 objections respectively. People from Mussoorie and Cantonment Assembly constituencies registered seven objections each, while from Raipur, the MCD received 15 objections. The MCD has received no objection regarding delimitation from Sahaspur Assembly constituency so far, the commissioner informed. He further stated, “The last date to submit any objections regarding the delimitation is August 23. After this deadline, the corporation will not entertain any further objections. Following the closure of the objection window, a meeting will be held with the DM to proceed with the next steps in the delimitation process.” The delimitation of the 54 wards in Dehradun was recently under scrutiny due to significant discrepancies. In 2018, just before the elections, villages surrounding Dehradun were included in the municipal corporation, increasing the number of wards from 60 to 100. The latest delimitation, ordered in July 2022, was completed in October last year and submitted to the State administration through the DM. However, several councillors raised concerns about the process. As per the officials, some wards were found to have low voter counts while others had numbers exceeding the standard voters per ward. The 2011 census data remains the basis for the current delimitation, as the 2021 census was not conducted. According to the last census, Dehradun’s population is 803,983. Based on these figures, the population for each of the 100 wards should be approximately 8,040, with an acceptable variance of 10 per cent. The population should not exceed 8,844 or fall below 7,236 per ward. Considering this, the State administration had returned the delimitation report submitted by the corporation earlier this month, prompting the DM to direct MCD to prepare another delimitation report, the officials said.
