Politicians hold sway over public at ward delimitation meeting

During the meeting, residents of Ward 29 (Chinna Sekkadu), which is currently in Madhavaram (Zone 3), requested for reclassification under Manali (Zone 2), which the Commissioner said will be taken into consideration. 

Corporation Commissioner D Karthikeyan said, “This is a genuine case, where the residents wanted to be a part of Manali due to various concerns. We have accepted that as a general suggestion. Zone delimitation will be taken up by the government after elections.” The ward delimitation meeting commenced from 11 am onwards, with representatives from North zones like Thiruvotriyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Tondiarpet and Royapuram were addressed, followed by representations from Central zones like Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar, Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Teynampet and Kodambakkam, rounded off by South zones of Valasaravakkam, Alandur and Adyar. 

The most changes were from Perungudi (zone 14) and Sholinganallur (zone 15), where representations of the respective zones were held separately. The representations were largely from political quarters, voicing their views on the demarcation of wards. Representatives from Ezhil Nagar wanted to be in the same ward as Kannagi Nagar in Sholinganallur zone. However, officials present indicated that this wasn’t possible as Kannagi Nagar itself exceeded the population threshold for that ward, which including the settlement, already has a population of 40,000. 

The Corporation opened the draft proposal for ward delimitation early this year. In the first round ward level meetings, 499 were received – 102 from North, 104 from Central and 293 from South regions. On February 9, officials had accepted most of the changes, which were updated, and a consolidated draft was forwarded to the State Election Commission. On Thursday, the second round of consultation was conducted, where the officials accepted certain suggestions while directing the zonal officials to audit the remaining petitions raised for feasibility.