Won't proceed with delimitation of civic wards till Dec 20: Maha govt to HC

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday informed the Bombay High Court that it would not proceed with the process of delimitation of wards with respect to the cashrich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation till further hearing of a plea against the reduction of wards in the civic bodyThe court posted the matter for hearing on December 20A division bench of Justices S V Gangapurwala and A S Doctor was hearing two petitions filed by two former councillors challenging an ordinance issued by the Eknath Shindeled Maharashtra government reducing the number of directly elected councillors within the limits of the BMC from 236 to 227Senior counsel Vikram Nankani appearing for the state government told the court on Wednesday that till the next date of hearing the government would not proceed with the delimitation process with regard to the BMCThe bench accepted this statement and said the apprehension of the petitioners has been addressed The HC posted the matter for hearing on December 20Also read Gujarat too will have free electricity from March CM Bhagwant MannIn November 2021 the then Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray decided to increase the number of BMC wards from 227 to 236The MVA government collapsed in June this year Later Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde formed government with the Bharatiya Janata Partys supportIn August the Shinde government issued an ordinance bringing back the number to 227Former BMC councillors Raju Pednekar and Sameer Desai in their petitions challenged this decision and said it had sought to put the clock backThe state Urban Development Department in an affidavit filed on Wednesday said the petitions have been filed with ulterior motives and ought to be dismissed with exemplary costThe malafide and political influence behind filing of the present petitions is evident it saidThe government further said the reason why it felt the number of wards need not be increased was that the population rise was minisculeAs per the Census of 2011 increasing the number of councillors from 227 to 236 was found to be insufficient it saidThe State Election Commission in its affidavit filed on Wednesday in response to the petitions said in 2021 when the seats were increased by the Maharashtra government from 227 to 236 the SEC had to scrap the work already done by it with regard to the preelection process and restart itIt said the previous MVA government then amended the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act by which powers of the SEC for delimitation were withdrawn and the power was entrusted with the stateThe amendment was challenged in the Supreme Court and the issue is still pendingIn August 2022 the present Maharashtra government issued an ordinance by which the number of wards was once again reduced from 236 to 227 This ordinance has also been challenged in the Supreme Court the affidavit saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever