Delhi Civic Body To Have 250 Seats, 42 Will be Reserved, Says Notification

New Delhi:

The central government has fixed the total number of seats in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi at 250 from the existing figure of 272. This was stated in a Delhi Gazette notification issued on Saturday.

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 said.

The previous three corporations in Delhi comprised 272 wards. While the North and South corporations accounted for 104 wards each, the East corporation had 64 wards under its jurisdiction.

“In pursuance of sub-section (5) of section 3 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957, as amended by the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022, the Central government hereby determines the total number of seats of the Councillors in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as two hundred and fifty (250),” reads the notification.

“Further, in accordance with sub-section (6) (as amended) of section 3 of the aforesaid Act, the Central Government also determines the total number of seats of the Councillors in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to be reserved for members of Scheduled Castes as forty-two (42), based on the ratio to the total number of seats as the population of Scheduled Castes bears to the total population of Delhi (Census 2011),” it said.

Parliament on April 5 had passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill-2022 to unify three civic bodies in the national capital into a new unified entity, which capped the number of total wards to 250.

The Union Home Ministry in July had set up a three-member commission for carrying out a fresh delimitation of the municipal wards in Delhi.    The exercise, currently underway, will pave the way for the civic polls in Delhi, which would be the first since the reunification of three corporations recently.

The panel comprises Vijay Dev, State Election Commissioner, Delhi, who is its chairman; Pankaj Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary in Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; and Randhir Sahay, Additional Commissioner, MCD. The commission will present its report in four months of its formation, the civic body had said in July.

The reunified MCD had formally come into existence on May 22 with IAS officers Ashwani Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti assuming charge as the new civic body’s special officer and commissioner, respectively.

The erstwhile MCD, established in 1958, was trifurcated in 2012 during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure as chief minister. It was recently reunified by merging three civic bodies — North, South and East Delhi municipal corporations or NDMC, SDMC and EDMC.

Experts in July had said the civic polls here are not likely to take place before 2023 as redrawing of civic wards is an “extensive exercise”.