The Maharashtra Government has issued an ordinance increasing the number of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) wards to 236 from 227. The ordinance was issued after Governor BS Koshyari’s signature.
An urban development department officer said that as the state legislature is not in session and other improvements are required to be made, the Governor granted permission to issue the ordinance. It was signed by the governor on November 30. The ordinance has mentioned section 5 of the BMC Act 1888 which stipulates the number of directly elected representatives.
The state cabinet on November 10 gave its nod to increase the number of wards to 236 from 227 in view of 3.8 per cent increase in the population in BMC’s jurisdiction and fast-growing urbanisation. In addition, the decision was taken to give more representation to the elected representatives as the number of corporators was fixed at 227 as per the 2001 census and it was not revised after the 2011 census.
As reported by the Free Press Journal, the State Election Commission (SEC) was waiting for the issuance of the ordinance. Now, SEC will write to BMC to redraw the ward boundaries as per the ordinance. The BMC elections, which are expected in February 2022, may be postponed by at least two months as the civic body will have to conduct a fresh exercise of the remapping of its wards from northwest to southeast Mumbai.
