MC polls: Work on delimitation of wards yet to complete in Patiala

Ravneet Singh

Patiala, May 22

The Local Government Department is yet to complete the work of ward delimitation to hold the municipal corporation elections. Local Government Minister Inderbir Singh Nijjer said the state would complete its ward delimitation work and hold the elections soon.

The terms of all four corporations — Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar came to an end from January 22 to 26 this year. Though expected to be held before the dissolution, the elections were delayed due to completing the ward delimitation work. In fact, the corporations managed to conduct and complete the surveys to identify the population of residents in each corporation without errors only by the end of December 2022.

Officials of the Municipal Corporations said the work of delimitation as a whole had been going on for about a year. “The survey of population was completed by December 2022. The Local Government Department has already held a few meetings of the delimitation boards, but the ward limits are yet to be assigned,” an official from the Patiala Municipal Corporation said.

As per the MC Act, the election to constitute a corporation should be completed before the expiration of a period of six months from the date of its dissolution, MC officials said. MC Commissioner Aaditya Uppal said, “The director of the Local Government Department is the chairman of the delimitation board constituted for each corporation, which comprises of the Deputy Commissioner, along with MLAs of the respective constituencies, the corporation commissioner and one joint commissioner.” He said a few meetings of the board had already been held. Another meeting for the purpose will be held on May 24.

When contacted, Inderbir Singh Nijjar, Minister, Local Government Department, said the department was seeking legal opinion on the matter. “We will complete the delimitation work and hold the corporation elections soon,” he added.