The state government is to publish the draft on delimitation of wards under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation on 31 July, informed administrator of the civic body Smita Pandey today.
Before the draft publication, the exercise is to undergo a few processes. As a part of the process, the KMC is to conduct field surveys across boroughs which would be a crucial part of the exercise undertaken to streamline the population in each ward of the municipal corporation. According to the municipal commissioner some wards in the civic body have a population over 84,000 while others are limited to more than 10,000. The civic body is planning to streamline the wards on the basis of population keeping the electorate count from 16000 to 18000 in each ward. The total number of wards under KMC after the delimitation exercise would increase to 200 from the existing count of 144.
To carry out the exercise, the civic body has formed a 10-member central committee at the corporation level. A process of claims and objections would also be included in the exercise. Another level of committee one in each borough has also been formed to work in tandem with the central committee ward wise. “The state government has informed us that the draft of the delimitation process would be published on 31 July. Before that we would have to prepare notional wards and carry out field surveys. After the surveys, we will scrutinise the survey sheets and validate those,” said the administrator.
“During the exercise, the area of KMC would be kept the same as it cannot be changed under the present norms. In the delimitation exercise, the area of KMC remains the same while only the wards which are going to change. Also, we cannot divide the booths or parts. As part is very important, we will have to work on how these booths or the boundaries of each ward could be rearranged to maintain the population to 16,000 to 20,000,” she explained.
KMC nod to 11 under construction projects: The high-level committee by the state government in the aftermath of Taratala godown collapse incident, has given nod to 11 under-construction projects to proceed with their work.
As learnt from the administrator of KMC, from its existing database the civic body had identified 344 projects that had received building plan sanctions. Of this, the civic body received around 200 applications. “The technical sub-committee has carried out inspections at around 160 projects so far,” informed the administrator of KMC, Smita Pandey. “After the inspections we are giving our observations. Eleven projects have been given a go ahead by the high-level committee while 23 projects have been turned down following lapses in compliances. The nod would be communicated in writing while it would also be put up on the project site,” she added.
As pointed out by the administrator, in several instances at the construction sites, flaws have been observed in terms of compliances of labour laws. “The flaws have been found mostly in cases of certification and registration of labourers. The applicants have been communicated about the do’s of the construction activity,” elaborated the municipal commissioner.