Cuttack, Aug. 14: The draft notification on ward delimitation and reservation in the municipal corporation have left many councillors disappointed.
The state housing and development department issued the draft notification on Monday, approving the Cuttack Municipal Corporation’s proposal for creation of five new wards taking into consideration the city’s population of 6,10,189, according to the 2011 census. With the five new wards, the civic body will have 59 wards.
BJD councillor Bijay Kumar Pradhan was upset because his ward No. 3, which was reserved for scheduled caste members, has now been reserved for general category women. “My ward has been re-designated No. 7. The seat is now reserved for general category women candidates, despite the scheduled caste population being more here,” Pradhan said.
Independent councillor of ward No. 26 Narottama Das alleged that the principle of rotation had been used arbitrarily while categorising seats for reservation.
“The ward has been reorganised as ward No. 30 and reserved for general category women. The ward was reserved for general category men for the last polls after being reserved for general category women in the two previous civic polls,” Das said.
Independent-turned-BJP councillor Laxmidhar Pradhan of ward No. 23 alleged that there had been unfair application of the principle of rotation. “My ward has been re-numbered as ward No. 26 and reserved for general category women, when quite a few of the wards of BJD councillors have been kept reserved for men even after two elections,” Pradhan said.
NCP councillor of ward No. 10 Seshadev Nanda said: “My ward has been designated as ward No. 13 and reserved for general category women apparently with political intention as I have won from the seat in four consecutive civic polls. But at the same time, it cannot be ignored that several BJD councillors have been affected by reservation of wards.”
As many as 21 sitting councillors cannot seek re-election from their own wards as their seats have either been reserved for women, backward class citizen women, scheduled caste women or scheduled tribe women — while 11 are BJD councillors, five Congress, two BJP, one NCP and two Independent.
Mayor Sumendra Ghose said the draft notification had been issued on the basis of a proposal, which was unanimously passed in a council meeting.
City BJD president and councillor Madhusudan Sahu, whose prospects for the coming civic polls was affected after getting elected in three consecutive elections as his ward No. 22 (now 25) had been reserved for women, said: “Delimitation was the result of a methodical study. Some councillors are disappointed because they have been adversely affected. But, they will soon appreciate that the new wards will also give them scope to contest from adjacent wards.”
Congress councillor Dharmananda Patra was, however, not upset over reservation of his ward No. 32 for backward class women.
