Aurangabad, Nov 8:
The State Election Commission (SEC), in its latest order to Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), has directed to prepare and submit the rough draft of prabhags (delimitation of existing municipal wards) by November 18. Meanwhile, the AMC is hopeful of completing the task in 10 days.
After delimitation of 115 wards, the AMC will form 126 wards and further divide them into 42 prabhags. Each prabhag will comprise of three members (corporators). It may be noted that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in its cabinet meeting had approved to create 126 wards considering the gradual increase of the population in city.
As per Census 2011, the population of the city is 12.28 lakh. It includes the population of scheduled caste (2.38 lakh) and scheduled tribe (16,320). Hence the AMC will delimit the 115 wards as per the Enumeration Blocks (EBs) prepared by the enumerators during the last Census.
According to sources, the natural growth of 10 per cent in population will be considered while forming the prabhags. Hence it would be like a tight rope walking for the civic authorities. It may be noted a petition challenging the disturbance of Enumeration Blocks has been filed in the Supreme Court in 2019. The petition will be finalised only after the submission of an affidavit by the SEC.
Many changes are expected in new prabhags. The jurisdiction of old wards will be delimited considering the increased population. The boundaries of the three wards will have to be fixed with care as per the parameters prescribed by the SEC.
Unrest amongst big leaders
The established leaders, who were getting elected for the past three decades, are keeping a close watch on the process of prabhag formation. They are trying their best to use their weight and see any change could be made in prabhag of choice as per their convenience. In the last month, when the AMC had started preparing the rough draft, the leaders tried to intervene in the work.