The State government has notified the delimitation of 200 wards of the Chennai Corporation, changing the boundaries of 119 wards. The boundaries of 81 wards will remain unchanged.
The ward covering Sadayankuppam has emerged as the largest in terms of area, in the city. The final proposal sent by the civic body to the Delimitation Commission has been accepted. “Work on reservation of wards for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women will be completed soon,” said an official.
Several neighbourhoods have been merged with neighbouring zones to facilitate better civic services for residents who had complained of civic issues. For example, Chinna Sekkadu in Madhavaram zone has been merged with Manali zone to improve civic services such as garbage collection.
Involving stakeholders
Officers of the Corporation had published the draft delimitation proposal for the city on January 18. Residents were permitted to check the copies of the proposal in all zonal offices of the Corporation. Several residents, political party representatives and members of the civil society had submitted claims and objections pertaining to the proposal.
The Corporation’s proposal has been unique, as it was made based on varying population criteria for different levels of urbanisation. The Corporation made such a decision to prevent an increase in the number of councillors in core city from 107 to 134. “The delimitation of wards based on equal population for each wards would have led to a decrease in the number of councillors in added areas, from 93 to 66,” said an official.
Wards in Manali and Madhavaram have an average of 15,000 people, while each of the wards in the old city — Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru-Vi-Ka-Nagar, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam and Adyar — have 43,000 residents.
