Panel to use poll rolls to delimit wards

The Commission is shortly expected to sit in session, and give its approval for the district-wise proposals on demarcation of wards before the final consolidated report is sent out to the state. 

Sources said the Commission had already prepared the draft proposals for all the districts except for a few local bodies. “Once the pending proposals are received and consolidated, the official meeting of the Delimitation Commission would be convened,” a source said.

The Delimitation Commission that comes under the purview of the State Election Commission (SEC) had been preparing and sending out local body-wise proposals to the state. 

Dividing the state into seven zones for administrative purposes, the Commission had been preparing reports on two broad categories — urban and rural local bodies. 

Town panchayats, municipalities, and municipal corporations would fall under the urban category while village panchayats, panchayat unions, and district panchayats would form rural local bodies.

The delay in sending the final report on demarcation of wards had been attributed to some local bodies such as the Chennai Corporation which had scheduled a meeting of stakeholders on objections and suggestions in March. 

“Once the demarcation of the wards is approved by the government, the state has to issue orders for reservation of wards and its turns for the respective categories including women, scheduled caste/scheduled tribe, and general. That would be the penultimate stage for issuing notification for the local body polls,” an official said.

Since direct election model is to be employed with regard to the posts of chairpersons to Municipal Corporation, municipalities, and town panchayats, the electorate in the said areas would get two votes — one to choose the ward member and the other choose the civic body chief.

It is learnt that the SEC had entrusted the work of poll roll data update to the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The NIC had started its preliminary work from the poll roll published on January 10 last. Once the district-level reports are approved by the state, the NIC would finalise the draft rolls for the local body election which had been delayed by almost two years.

When contacted, M Malik Feroze Khan, State Election Commissioner, said they would send the consolidated report once it was approved by the Commission. The Commissioner, also the chairman of the Delimitation Commission, said they had been according top priority to the exercise.