The local body elections scheduled for October would be free and fair and there will be 12 Returning Officers for the 100 wards in the Madurai Corporation, said S. Natarajan, Corporation Commissioner.
Addressing an all party meeting here on Friday to discuss local body poll preparations after the extension of Madurai Corporation wards, he said that the Government Order had been passed on the increase in the number of wards but the classification of wards into general, and reserved categories for Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes and women had not been finalised.
The city boundaries would be expanded by including the municipalities of Avaniapuram, Anaiyur and Tirupparankundram; town panchayats of Harveypatti, Tirunagar and Vilangudi, and 11 village panchayats, thus taking the total number of wards from 72 to 100.
There would be 1,119 polling stations for the 100 wards with an average number of 1,200 voters in each polling station. Every station would have facilities such as ramps for differently abled people in accordance with Election Commission of India guidelines. If there were any anomalies in the facilities, it would be rectified soon, he said.
Answering a question on whether electronic voting machines (EVM) would be used or ballot papers, the Commissioner replied that it had not been decided. But all the party representatives unanimously demanded EVMs.
Representation for SC
Clearing the doubts on reservation of wards for local body polls for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the Commissioner said that proportionate representation would be followed, based on population of the SCs and STs. “It will not be on the basis of constitutionally-guaranteed 19 per cent reservation for SC/STs.”
On the basis of the density of population of SCs, wards would be reserved on a descending order. Since there were no Scheduled Tribes in substantial numbers within the city, there would be no wards reserved for STs, he said.
One-third for women
In the case of women, not less than one third of seats had to be allotted for them and it could roughly come to 34 wards with two reserved for SCs. R. Annadurai, MLA, Madurai South, enquired about the number of Assembly constituencies coming under South Zone and the official concerned said that three segments formed part of South Zone, Tirupparankundram had 6 wards, Madurai West 9 and Madurai Central 10.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam representative opined that the possibility of having an additional zone should be taken into account. CPI (M) and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi representatives shared their opinions on the proximity of polling stations.
R. Sundararajan, MLA, Madurai Central, P. Salaimuthu, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Corporation Council leader, and M. Ganesan, Communist Party of India (Marxist) council leader, among others, participated in the discussion.
