Lt.Governor's formula on seat rotation

By Lalit K. Jha

NEW DELHI, OCT. 2.

Coming out with his own formula on rotation of seats in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Vijai Kapoor, is believed to have proposed to the Union Home Ministry, for reduction in the number of seats to be rotated, from the existing 124 to 81 for the 134 wards for the MCD elections, scheduled for early next year.

In a letter to the Union Home Ministry, Mr. Kapoor, is learnt to have recommended that all the 25 wards with maximum Scheduled Castes population be reserved for them. ``Among them, arranged in serial order, the first among each batch of three be reserved for SC women,'' he said.

Raj Niwas has suggested that the remaining 109 ward seats be arranged in serial order and in each batch of three the first be reserved for women. ``This will entail 81 changes compared to the 1997 election,'' it said, against the 124 seats as per the original rotation schedule of the Election Commission. As for the election in 2007, Mr.Kapoor said the delimitation of wards will be in accordance with 2001 census and ``appropriate pattern of allotments can then be determined.''

Bringing out the loopholes in the existing rotation system, Raj Niwas observed that the system of allotments for the SCs was ``irrational'' and its ``repetition will be open to objections''. Further, freezing the reservation of seats at what obtained in the 1997 elections is bound to generate litigation, it said. Of the 25 wards having maximum SC population only four were reserved for the 1997 election.

Mr. Kapoor said that the existing system resulting in rotation of 124 of the 134 seats ``will seriously detract from the principles and practice of representational democracy'' as it will dilute the commitment of the elected councillors to their electors as well as to their parties.

He felt that, ideally, wards for Scheduled Castes should be allotted by preponderance of their population and the allotment of wards for women be made by numerical principle recommended by him. According to the Raj Niwas, if this formula was acceptable to both major parties then they can make a request to the Delhi Election Commissioner.

As per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act of the 134 wards of the civic body, 25 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and another 37 for women. Even among the seats reserved for the SCs, one- third are reserved for women. The act further said that the seats reserved for women and SCs will be allotted by rotation to the different wards, as directed and prescribed by the Centre.

The 25 wards proposed to be reserved for SCs, as recommended by Mr. Kapoor, are Raghubir Nagar (SC women), Madipur, Shakurpur, Peera Garhi (women), Sultanpur Majra, Mangolpuri North, Mangolpuri South (women), Nangloi, Bijwasan, Deoli (women), Dr. Ambedkar Nagar, Madangir, Harkesh Nagar (women), Tirlok Puri, Dallu Pura, Mayur Vihar (women), Kondly, Nand Nagri, Gokalpuri (women), Bharat Nagar, Rana Pratap Bagh, Dev Nagar (women), Kadam Sharif, Manak Pura and Anand Parbat (women).

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