Uneven size of municipal corporations and that of wards have brought to the fore the need for a fresh delimitation exercise of local bodies.
This can be observed from the fact that of the 2.83 crore electors in all types of urban local bodies of the State, 21 municipal corporations themselves account for around 1.57 crore, representing about 55%.
With respect to the electorate of municipal corporations, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC)’s share is around 40%, with 61.73 lakh electors. While in the remaining corporations, there are large local bodies, such as the Coimbatore and Madurai Corporations, with 15.65 lakh and 13.44 lakh electors respectively, and small ones, like Sivakasi, Kumbakonam and Cuddalore, with only 1.10 lakh, 1.29 lakh and 1.44 lakh voters.
Similarly, a perusal of the electorate data of the GCC highlights a lack of uniformity with respect to the size of wards.
Ward no.17 in the Manali zone of the GCC has only 4,157 electors, whereas the size of the electorate in ward no.35 in the Tondiarpet zone is 58,123, which is 10 times bigger than the former. South Chennai fares no better. Within the Adyar zone, ward no. 177, covering many parts of Velachery, has an electorate of 48,079, whereas the neighbouring ward no. 178 has only 32,163 electors.
“For an electorate of this size, Chennai should have more councillors than what it has,” says D.S. Sivasamy, former Additional Director of Municipal Administration, referring to the proposal of the Delimitation Commission of Karnataka to increase the number of wards in Bengaluru to 243 from the current 198.
“In our State, Tambaram, one of the newly formed corporations, will have 70 councillors for an electorate of 7.78 lakh, whereas Chennai will have only 200, though its population is about eight times that of Tambaram,” he says.
Again, if the size of a ward hovers around 50,000, which is as good as that of a municipality, it will not be practically possible for any councillor to serve the people satisfactorily, Mr. Sivasamy points out. [According to the 2021-22 policy note of the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, there are 51 municipalities, whose population is less than 50,000].
Also, considerations of population, income, geographical contiguity and compactness alone should be taken into account at the time of upgrading any local body, he emphasises.
Senior officials in the government explained that a fresh delimitation was not undertaken before the urban local bodies (ULBs) poll in view of the Supreme Court’s direction to complete the elections in four months. This was why the process, undertaken during 2017-19, was retained for most of the ULBs, except for those in newly-created districts.
As far as upgrading any municipality into a municipal corporation goes, the size of population (not just the electorate) and the income are considered. The population should be in the range of 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh, and the income should be ₹50 crore.
When Tambaram was made a municipal corporation, all these factors were taken into account. Five municipalities and town panchayats each and 15 village panchayats were amalgamated into the new corporation, an official explained, adding that the current term of elected representatives of the village panchayats was been disturbed.
A former member of the Delimitation Commission, which covered most of the local bodies a few years ago with the 2011 Census data as the basis, refers to the Local Bodies Delimitation Regulations of 2017 and says that there is a provision for 10% variation with regard to the size of wards.
The population in each ward shall be the same in the local body concerned “as far as practically possible.” Regarding Chennai as a “special case,” the District Delimitation Authority (Chennai Corporation) had sought exemption from the rule of parity in the size of the wards which was granted by the previous government.
A veteran administrator says it will be not only ideal but also essential to carry out delimitation every 10 years, as the pace of urbanisation in Tamil Nadu is faster than in the rest of the country.
