Centre likely to approve delimitation panel report

New Delhi: With the delimitation committee submitting its final report on redrawing the wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Centre is likely to approve it by the end of this week, sources familiar with the development said

Tuesday. They added that the Centre was also likely to issue a notification ratifying the final report within this week.

The delimitation committee submitted to the Centre its final report on redrawing the wards of the MCD on Monday, official sources had said.

After the gazette notification by the MHA, the delimitation exercise will be completed.

According to the sources, the move will now pave the way for the MCD elections as after the final delimitation order, the Centre is likely to direct the state election commission to initiate the poll

process. Following the delimitation exercise, the number of municipal wards in Delhi will be 250. The delimitation exercise in Delhi was last conducted in 2016 and the number of wards was kept at 272 with each having an average population of 60,000 considering a variation of 10 to 15 per cent.

Municipal polls were slated to be held in Delhi in April this year. They were put on hold hours before then Delhi State Election Commissioner S K Srivastava was to announce the schedule on March 8 due to the Centre's plan to reunify the three civic bodies.