Draft notification on wards list by October 5

The UDD is trying to release both the lists - the delimitation of wards and the reservation of wards - in their final format, well before the release of calendar of events for the Palike polls.

Accordingly, the Department has completed a “quality check” of the wards and will be releasing the final list of 198 wards under the BBMP by Wednesday, September 23, 2009.

Finalisation

“We are already in the process of finalising the list of delimitation of wards by ensuring that the discrepancies, the spelling of ward names and other such minor modalities are rectified without touching the boundaries of the wards,” informed a UDD official.

According to the official, the department is trying to ensure that there is no delay in implementing the High Court directives. The UDD officials state, while they would have liked more time to finalise and then release the list of reserved wards for the elections, the High Court was unable to “appreciate” its arguments.

The officials say that the normal convention is to ensure that there is minimal “practical” problems for the citizens and the aspiring people’s representatives for any elections.
“It is generally a convention that the calendar of events including the reservation of wards is a prerogative of the State Government. Attempts are always made to release the list of wards and the reservation of wards as close to the election dates as possible. This is to negate any lobbying from political aspirants and to minimise the practical difficulties to political outfits,” informed the official.

The UDD officials also said that the SEC is in the process of getting the voters list ready apart from looking into other technical matters to hold the election and is hoping to declare the calendar of events well before the High Court deadline.