Use Hyderabad census data for delimitation: Experts
Delimitation of GHMC wards is being taken up in view of civic body’s upcoming polls
Hyderabad: Going by the present population of more than 1 crore plus, Greater Hyderabad needs an additional 22 wards besides the existing 150.
While delimiting, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s primary focus should be on areas like Hyderanagar, Motinagar, Kukatpally, Yakatpura and Vivekanandanagar as these have the highest Backward Caste population (12,000-15,000 in each ward).
Experts say that if all the 18 deputy commissioners have an official list of the voters in their respective circles, the GHMC can complete the delimitation in three weeks.
With delimitation, the present reservation will change. According to the Census taken in 2011, the population of the GHMC area is 67,31,790.
M. Padmanabha Reddy, secretary of the Forum for Good Governance, said, “GHMC already has authenticated the data for 2011. It should divide the 70 lakh population by the number of wards. The GHMC, thus, needs around 22 additional wards.”
He added, “As per Section 8 of the GHMC Act, the government divides the population into wards including reservations and sends the information to the state election commission three months before the expiry of the present body (December 3). By September, they should have completed the basic division. Focus should be on the densely populated areas, especially places with the highest number of BC voters.”
As per rules, the population in each ward should not vary by more than 10 per cent of the average population in other wards.
The Census figures of 2011 are to be taken into account and each ward should have 44,000 voters, with the permissible variation.
“GHMC had earlier written to the TS government to direct the corporation on delimitation of wards. On Tuesday, following an internal review meeting, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao approved it. GHMC will prepare a schedule. First, we need to conduct a complete survey and identify reservations, especially where the BCs are concerned, and finalise the total number of BC voters,” said GHMC commissioner, Somesh Kumar.