NMC polls likely to be deferred again

Staff Reporter

THE wait for the new House of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has just got longer as Maharashtra Government revised the norms of seats in relation to the base of population. As decided by Government, for population base in range of 24 to 30 lakh, which fits Nagpur, the maximum number of corporators can be 161. The State Government decision is cryptic but political grapevine is claiming that the old four-member Prabhag system is on cards in the ensuing elections.

The cabinet, on Wednesday, decided to revise the seats vis--a-vis population ratio in the municipal corporations. In case of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the number of seats have been reduced from 236 to 227. In other corporations, it was decided that for population between 3 lakh plus and 6 lakh the elected members would be minimum 65 and maximum 85. For population in excess of 3 lakh, for every 15,000 voters one additional member would be added to strength of House.

In cities with population range of six lakh to 12 lakh, the number of elected members would be 85 and maximum 115. For every 20,000 voters in excess of six lakh, one additional member would be added to the House. For population base of 12 lakh and more, one additional member would be elected from among 40,000 voters. For the population base of 24 lakh and more, for every additional 50,000 voters one additional member would be elected.

For population of 30 lakh plus, one additional member would be added for every one lakh population thereafter. Also in Corporation having population of 12 lakh to 24 lakh, the minimum strength of House would be 115 and maximum 151. In population ratio of 24 lakh to 30 lakh, the minimum number of members strength would be 151 and maximum 161.

One thing that has now become clear is the process of elections to NMC and other corporations is going to get pushed to next year as entire procedure would need to be conducted afresh, said the experts.

After the cancellation of the newly-announced ward delimitation, election to the civic body would be held by January-February 2023. The administration will have to almost start from scratch and to the entire election process. The civic administration would have to undo its previous hard work that went into finalisation of reservation and drawing-up boundaries of 3-member Prabhag system. It is set to be dumped in case the 4-member Prabhag system is notified.

The current process of scrutinising objections after draw of lots for determining seats to be reserved for OBC too now holds little value. Similarly, previous process undertaken by the civic administration as to finalisation of reservations for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and women representatives is almost cancelled.

The State Government will be issuing a notification later to guide civic administrations and local self government bodies about next set of procedure for elections. Though exact contours of the Government decision would only be known after the notification is issued, political circles are claming that 3-member Prabhag system is now history.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is happy with 4-member Prabhag system as it favours the party having deep base among the voters.