Kolkata: The KMC has received nearly 300 claims and objections from citizens and political parties over the proposed revision of ward boundaries, most objections being related to the shifting of parts or booths from one ward to another, or queries on why a part was split.A part or booth is the smallest electoral unit.As part of the delimitation exercise, which will raise the number of wards from the current 144 to 209, the civic body had called for suggestions and objections between Aug 22 and Sept 3. The first round of hearings was held at the KMC headquarters on Saturday and the process will continue on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Ten hearing officers have been assigned for KMC.Representatives of Trinamool, Congress, Left and BJP attended Saturday’s hearings. As objections were filed separately, multiple representatives from the same party could be called. Trinamool functionary Baiswanor Chattopadhyay, a Mamata Banerjee loyalist, alleged political agenda in the delimitation. “The gazette notification said wards would be divided based on population but the revision was carried out, based on voter strength. When we raised this point, the hearing officers had no answer,” he claimed.Kasba MLA Javed Khan, who is on the Ritabrata Banerjee camp of Trinamool, made a similar allegation. Pointing out that parts in Kasba Assembly constituency were merged with Entally, he said, “KMC has no power to do it. Assembly delimitation can be done only by the EC. Besides, the map has multiple errors.”The state Pradesh Congress committee general secretary Asutosh Chatterjee alleged the revision was aimed at reducing the size and strength of minority-dominated wards.Ashok Sinha, special coordinator of BJP’s legal cell, said the party objected to the way old Ward 28 was split and merged with minority-dominated wards. “It was changed, but the map still shows the error,” he said.Nandita Ray, former councillor of Ward 103, said parts 159 and 186 were missing from the new ward-wise list. “The old Ward 103 is now Ward 158 but the two parts are not there,” she said.A KMC official said all recognised political parties, barring two, submitted their objections.
