Cuttack city is poised to have five new wards with the Cuttack
Municipal Corporation (CMC) passing a resolution on delimitation of
wards.

The CMC meeting held on Wednesday was unanimous on the
proposal for increasing the number of wards from 54 to 59. The wards
would be created by redrawing several existing wards on the basis of
population and concentration of voters.

As per the resolution,
seven wards comprising 1, 2, 3, 21, 23, 52 and 53 would be redrawn to
give shape to new entities.  Wards from 1 to 3 encompassing the CDA,
Bidanasi, Sandhapur and Bidyadharpur region have been proposed to be
bifurcated into six wards while wards 21 and 23 comprising Bisinabar,
Kesharpur, Rausapatana, Haripur, Samanta Sahi, Dolamundai along with
Kathagada Sahi, Kumbhar Sahi, Nimasahi, Bhagatpur and  Tarachandpatna
would be split to create three wards. Wards 52 and 53 comprising the
region beyond Kathjodi river to Phulnakhara would be divided into three
wards.

The resolution, along with complete demographics of the
proposed wards including males and females, caste and community has been
sent to the State Government for publication of the statutory
notification for delimitation of the wards.

The Government is
expected to issue the notification inviting objections by August 10 and
the process of receiving the feedback would be completed by August 20.
The final notification on the creation of new wards and reservation
status will be issued by August 31, Mayor Soumendra Ghosh said.

Carving
new entities has been deemed necessary as the population of the city
has gone up to 6,10,189 in the 2011 census from 5.35 odd-lakh in the
2001 census. “As per norms, there should be 59 wards for a population of
six lakh. With Cuttack population crossing the mark, required wards
have to be created”, Ghosh explained. The process of formulation of new
wards will have no bearing on the impending elections to CMC as the
polls are due after February 2014. The process would be completed and
formalised by the time elections are declared, the Mayor stated.

7 More Wards Added to BMC

Bhubaneswar:
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) submitted a fresh
delimitation report based on 2011 Census to the State Government.

 Seven
new wards have been added to existing wards as per  new delimitation
undertaken by the State Government taking the total count to 67. Even
though State Election Commission (SEC) has asked BMC to conduct election
based on 2001 census report, Government issued directions for fresh
delimitation under BMC. As per 2011 census report, city’s population
stands at 8.40 lakh. According to fresh delimitation report, six wards
have been reserved for SC , three for ST, 18 for OBC category and 40 for
general. In total, 34 wards have been reserved for women and 33 for
men. The population of each ward has been kept between 11,000 and
12,500.