Councillors at the meet on Wednesday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, July 31: The municipal corporation proposes to create five new wards. The new wards will be created by bifurcating seven of the existing 54 wards.

“The decision to increase the number of wards and reserve 50 per cent of them for women in place of the prevailing one-third was taken by the municipal council today. The proposal to this effect which was passed unanimously will be submitted to the state government to issue the notification on delimitation of wards and reservation,” said mayor Saumendra Ghose.

The proposal to increase the number of wards to 59 was mooted taking into consideration the city’s population of 6,10,189 as per 2011 census. The corporation proposes to have one ward for every 10,342 population, official sources said.

“CMC plans to create five new wards by the division of ward Nos. 1, 2, 3, 21, 22, 52 and 53,” said Jaga Narayan Kuzur, officer-in-charge of execution of delimitation exercise.

“Compactness of the area, equitable distribution of population among the wards, barriers such as railway line, national highway, major road and river have been taken as criteria for reorganisation of the wards,” Kuzur said.

The clearing of the proposal for delimitation of wards at the municipal corporation’s council meeting was a quiet affair understandably because the councillors were provided with little information on the details of reorganisation, except for the number of new wards and the wards bifurcated for their creation.

“We asked for details on the 59 wards with information on women population, scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population and other backward classes’ population to get an idea on the reservation of wards. We were assured to be provided with it tomorrow,” said Prafulla Kumar Behera, corporator of ward no 28.

Dharmananda Patra, corporator of ward No. 32 echoed the same.

Official sources said creation of a ward has been proposed by splitting ward no 52 and 53. “I am happy that my area was included for creation of a new ward. Reorganisation had become imperative in view of the around 16,400 population,” said Pradeep Behera, councillor of ward No. 52.

Creation of another ward has been proposed by reshuffling ward no 23 composed of Kathagada Sahi, Kumharsahi, Nima Sahi, Biscuit Company Lane, Harijan Sahi, Bhagatpur and Tarachand Patana and ward no 21 constituting of Town Bisnabar, Kesharpur, Rausapatna New Colony, Haripur, Samanta Sahi and Dolamundai.

“My ward was the largest one in the city with a population of over 30,000. Bifurcation of some parts for a new ward was much needed,” said Laxmidhar Pradhan, councillor of ward No. 23.

Official sources said three of the five new wards has been proposed by reorganisation of Satichoura, Jyoti Vihar, Bentkarpada, Tangarhuda and portions of Markat nagar (Sector 6 and 7) in ward No. 3, Bidanasi Kumharsahi, Bidanasi Gopalsahi and Nuasahi in Ward no 1 and Mundasahi, Brajabiharipur, Bidyadharpur, Sandhapur and portions of Markat nagar (sector 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15) in ward No. 2.