MCG elections will now be held in 2018

The residents of Gurugram who were hoping to cast their vote in the much delayed city civic elections will now probably have to wait till next year to choose their ward councillors.

The Punjab and Haryana High court on Tuesday provided the Haryana government time till October 8 to submit their reply over the issue of wards delineation.

With the prolonged delay the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) continues to function without elected councillors.

Disagreeing on the ward delineation resulted in petitioners namely Bhoop Singh, Qutab Enclave Residents Welfare Association (QERWA), Zile Singh Numberdar and Jagmohan filing a plea at the high court on February 6. This subsequently resulted in the judiciary placing a stay order on the holding of civic elections in March.

To solve the civic challenges in the city, MCG was formed in the year 2008. After the term of the MCG councillors ended on May 2016, there was an announcement that the MCG elections will be held in March 2017.

"We are disagreeing on the ward delineation. To suit the political interests the committee formed by the State Government adopted tactics like excluding old areas from a ward or addition of new areas. This was done to ensure that the councillor loses connect with his voters. Over 70 per cent of the 35 wards have been wrongly delineated," said Gaurav Singla from QERWA that is one of the petitioners.