Corporation to have more than 50 per cent women representation

The Council of the Greater Chennai Corporation will now have more than 50 per cent women representation, as the Corporation Commissioner has reserved 105 divisions (wards) for women candidates. The civic body has 200 divisions.

According to a notification issued by G Prakash, Chennai Corporation Commissioner, 89 divisions have been reserved for women in the general category and 16 divisions for those belonging to the Scheduled Castes.

The decision was taken after the State government announced its decision of increasing women representation in local body councils to 50 per cent from 33 per cent. The development came after the State Election Commission directed local bodies to prepare electoral rolls for the local body election, expected to be held this year.

Earlier, the Chennai Corporation council had only 67 divisions reserved for women candidates, which is 33 per cent of the total 200 divisions. Of the 67 divisions, 58 divisions were in the general category and nine divisions were in the Scheduled Castes category.

Apart from women’s reservation, Prakash also reserved 16 divisions for the Scheduled Caste category, in which both men and women belonging to the category could contest. No reservation has been provided for the Scheduled Tribes category. In general, 79 divisions are left for general category. The civic body had completed delimitation of wards in December and had retained the number of divisions to 200, with slight modifications in ward boundaries. Of the 200, the civic body modified 119 divisions during the delimitation drive and changed division numbers.

During the drive, the civic body also changed boundaries of Manali and Madhavaram zones by adding division 22 to Manali from Madhavaram. The State could not conduct local body elections for over two-and-a half years and appointed special officers to manage the local bodies.

When the government announced local body elections in 2016, the DMK approached the High Court pleading a stay on it citing the failure of the government in allocating reservation of wards to the Scheduled Castes. With the delimitation of divisions and allocation of the reservation having been completed, the State has promised the High Court that it would announce the elections in August.