Natural boundaries will come into play during delimitation of local body wards

The guidelines, approved by the Delimitation Commission on Tuesday for redrawing the boundaries of the three-tier panchayats, municipalities and Corporations in Kerala, define ‘natural boundaries’ as rivers, streams, canals, lakes and hills.

The guidelines for the delimitation of local body wards stipulate that the boundaries of panchayats, municipalities and Corporations should be demarcated, as far as possible, along geographical features that serve as natural boundaries.

The guidelines, approved by the Delimitation Commission on Tuesday for redrawing the boundaries of the three-tier panchayats, municipalities and Corporations in Kerala, define ‘natural boundaries’ as rivers, streams, canals, lakes and hills.

In addition to these geographical features, manmade structures and landmarks such as roads, footpaths, streets, railway tracks and public institutions also can be considered for fixing the limits.

For aligning the boundaries along natural features, the guidelines permit slight reductions or increases in the average populations of wards. But such “adjustments” should not exceed 10% of the ward population in the case of grama panchayat, municipality and Corporation wards.

Travel considerations of the residents, communication facilities and the ease of establishing polling stations for elections also should be taken into account when determining the ward boundaries, according to the guidelines.

2011 Census

Boundaries of all local bodies in the State will be redrawn on the basis of the 2011 Census as part of the delimitation exercise. On Tuesday, the Delimitation Commission headed by State Election Commissioner A. Shajahan had announced that it would be carried out in three phases, with grama panchayats, municipalities and Corporations getting covered in the first, block panchayats in the second and district panchayats in the third.

The guidelines, among other things, also sets down for the placement, numbering and naming of the proposed wards. Ward no. 1 should be situated to the northwest of the local body. The numbering should then proceed clockwise to it in a way that the last ward and the first share a border. The east, west, north and south borders of every ward should be clearly demarcated.

Naming process

The proposed wards should be named after the most prominent place in it. Names of national importance or that of any public institution are also permitted. If needed, current ward names can be retained. However, the names of families, religions or religious institutions are not allowed.

Field staff will map the wards using the customised QField app. The app has been customised for the Delimitation Commission’s use by the Information Kerala Mission.

Earlier this month, the State government had issued notifications increasing the total number of wards in grama, block and district panchayats, municipalities and Corporations from 21,900 to 23,612. In the 87 municipalities, the number of wards will increase from 3113 to 3241, in the six corporations from 414 to 421, and in the 941 grama panchayats, from 15962 to 17337. In the 152 block panchayats, the number will go up from 2080 to 2267, and in the 14 district panchayats, from 331 to 346.

Published - September 25, 2024 08:37 pm IST