5 years on, Ambala Sadar poll process at delimitation stage

Tribune News Service

Nitish Sharma

Ambala, September 3

Five years on, since the tenure of the previous House of the Municipal Council, Ambala Sadar, came to an end, the process for the election of a new House is still at the stage of delimitation of wards.

Residents face difficulty in raising issues

The government has failed to ensure timely elections. With no elected representatives, residents face difficulties in raising local issues and the government officials are running the affairs of the MC as per their whims and fancies. The elections should be conducted at the earliest. Onkar Singh, INLD Spokesman and a resident of the Ambala Sadar area

The term of the previous House was completed in July 2018 and in 2019, the Municipal Corporation was bifurcated into the Ambala Municipal Corporation and Municipal Council, Ambala Sadar. Though the wards were reserved twice, in 2021 and in 2023, the process came to a halt after lacunae were pointed out. There will be 32 wards in the the new House of the Ambala Sadar.

Former member of the House from the Congress, Onkarnath Pruthi, who was a member of the five-member ad-hoc committee formed for the delimitation of wards, said, “We have submitted our report regarding the delimitation and it has been forwarded to the directorate, but there are some objections which the MC will remove. In the absence of local representatives, all wards don’t get due attention due to which the development work has come to a halt.”

The Local BJP leader, Rajiv Gupta, who was also a member of the committee, said, “The wardbandi has been done as per the guidelines and we are hopeful that the process will be completed soon as we want to get the elections conducted at the earliest. Already, It has been five years.The local representatives can raise the issues of their respective areas effectively and get the work done.”

The Administrator, Municipal Council, Ambala Sadar, Satinder Siwach, said, “A draft of the wardbandi has been prepared and sent to the headquarters for further action but there are some queries related to data mismatch in a few wards where voters are shown more than the population for which BLOs have been engaged for verification. After getting the final delimitation notification further process will be initiated. Efforts are being made to ensure that the grievances of the residents are resolved and the issues raised through the Nagar Darshan portal are also resolved.”

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