The local unit of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has alleged population discrepancies in ward-formation of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and threatened to approach the court if the state election commission does not listen to its stand. The outfit alleged that the population of a few wards has been intentionally brought down under the pressure of political parties.
Following a direction from the state election commission, the civic chief Abhijit Bangar published the draft of ward formation on Tuesday.
As per the state election commission, citizens can submit their suggestions and objection regarding the formation till February 14 to the municipal commissioner of NMMC. All suggestions and objections will have to produce before the election commission for preparing the final list of wards.
BJP’s Airoli MLA Ganesh Naik alleged that he would approach the High Court as there are discrepancies in the ward formation. “A few wards under the Airoli constituency have around 23,000 to 25,000 population. But under the Belapur constituency has around 30,000 to 31,500 population. The difference of 6000 to 7,000 populations is under the scanner,” said Naik. He added that it seems that officials who prepared ward formation worked under the pressure of a political party.
As per the draft, Karave village has the lowest 19,698 population and maximum in Shirvane ward with 31544 population. Both wards fall under the Belapur constituency.
Last year, the state election commission had increased the number of wards from 111 to 122 and the new wards are being formed by demarcating the existing wards. The term of the last corporation was ended in April 2020 and the election is due in April 2020. And now, the election of the civic body will be held on 122 wards.
In the last decade, the population of the NMMC has increased substantially and the need for separate wards has been felt. In order to speed up the development works, there is a need for more representation in the civic body.
