Wards in Shimla Municipal Corporation may increase to 35

The number of wards in Shimla municipal Corporation (SMC) is likely to be increased from 25 to 35 for the next elections due in May 2017.

Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, who is also the Returning officer, has notified the draft proposals and afforded ten days time to people for filing objections against the proposal and giving suggestions.

The Governor Acharya Devvrat had promulgated the ordinance on September 4 to amend the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act providing for increasing the number of wards up to 37 in two Municipal Corporations of Shimla and Dharamsala.

The delimitation of the wards is being done on the basis of 2011 census and effort is being made to have a new ward over 4000 average population.
 

The population of the Corporation area has increased from 1,42,553 in 2001 census to 1,69,578 in 2011 census, an increase of 27,025 and there was no uniformity in carving out the wards and population criteria were ignored.

As per the State Election Commission's draft proposals, most of the new wards are proposed in the merged areas where the population has swelled during past one decade while there is no significant change in demographic character in the wards in old Shimla.

The number of wards is likely to increase from 10 to 18 or 19 in the areas under Shimla Rural and Kusumpti Assembly constituencies under SMC while one or two wards may be created in Old MC areas.

At present there is glaring variation in population of wards, with some of the wards like Chhota Shimla and Patyog having population of 15,399 and 12,029 while some other wards like Ram Bazar, Jakoo and Banmur having population of 3734, 3505 and 3988 respectively as per 2011 census and creation of new wards was imperative to adhere to population norm of 4000.

In 2012 SMC polls, direct elections were held for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor but this time the elections would held for 35 wards and mayor and deputy mayors would be elected by the councilors.