Mumbai: With the involvement of two secretaries of the Urban Development Department (UDD) in drafting the electoral ward boundaries, the schedule for the final announcement of the wards, on the face of it, has been extended by 18 days. However, the polls will be scheduled nearly 45 days after the ward boundaries are announced. This will lead to the postponement of all civic body polls to November-end.
The earlier state government order, issued on June 10, lacked a timeline, which was communicated two days later, on June 12, through a separate letter from the UDD to all civic commissioners. As per this communication, the polls were to be held before Diwali, which is on October 21-22.
On Monday, the state issued two directives – one for the inclusion of the UDD secretaries in the process, and the other to extend the process of finalising the ward boundaries. As per the new timeline, the submission of the draft ward boundaries by the civic commissioners to the UDD must be done by August 1-5. The publication of the draft to invite suggestions and objections from citizens has been scheduled for August 22-28.
The resubmission of the final draft to the UDD has been set for September 9-15. The submission of the proposal to the State Election Commission must finish by September 16-22. Finally, the issuance of the notification of final ward boundaries must be done by October 3- 6. This will be followed by acting on suggestions and objections by citizens, nominations, and campaigning before the final polls.
As per the FPJ’s earlier report, the BMC was expected to call for suggestions and objections on the draft ward delimitation from July 22-31, for which a public hearing was to be held after August 1, and the ward boundaries were to be notified by September 4. However, this timeline has changed dramatically with the new directive. The FPJ had reported in the June 12 edition that although the total number of electoral wards will remain 227, it is likely that the ward boundaries will change due to new roads, stormwater drains, and other infrastructural development since 2017. However, this will be known only after the ground visits are completed. BMC commissioner and administrator Bhushan Gagrani had told the FPJ, “Minor changes in the ward boundaries cannot be ruled out.”
