119 objections raised to Jalandhar MC draft delimitation plan

Leaders of the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have raised an objection to a draft proposed by the local government department regarding the delimitation of wards before the Jalandhar municipal corporation polls.

At least 119 objections have been filed, mostly by leaders of Congress and BJP, with the Jalandhar MC as they alleged that the whole process has been carried in a faulty manner.

As per the draft, which was made public last week for inviting objection, five new wards — four in Jalandhar Cantonment assembly segment and one in Jalandhar west — will be added to the earlier 80 wards under the jurisdiction of Jalandhar MC.

Jalandhar Congress committee president Rajinder Berry said the whole process of finalising the new map of the area was faulty as no stakeholder — local representatives of the particular area or residents — was consulted.

“We have already taken opinion from our legal team and have decided to approach court against the delimitation proposal,” said Berry.

Meanwhile, BJP’s national executive member and former minister Manoranjan Kalia said the process of delimitation has to be made strictly in consonance with the provision of the Delimitation of Wards of Municipal Corporation Order-1995.

“The draft scheme published for delimitation of wards of Jalandhar MC has been issued without undertaking any physical survey, which is a necessary exercise as the boundary of the wards is required to be fixed with reference to some salient point/feature. The city map has been downloaded from Google app in a most haphazard fashion,” he alleged.

One of the officials said the objections received have been sent to the secretary and director, local government department, Punjab, and deputy commissioner-cum-chairman of delimitation board of the Jalandhar MC for further consideration.

Jalandhar MC commissioner Abhijit Kaplish could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.