Municipal Corporation Gurgaon, the legislative body for the district of Gurugram (Gurgaon), holds it elections its every 5 years to elect councillors enabling all administrative and civic services. The next round of elections, which have been overdue for almost a year, is delayed due to the new ward distribution proposal finalisation and now may be expected in a few months.
The new ward division notice issued by Urban Local Bodies Department, Haryana on 26 Aug 2023, now divides Gurugram administrative areas into 36 wards instead of 35 as in the current status.
A matter of concern for us, the new ruling has placed DLF Phase 2 under two different wards. DLF2 J block and Q block will be part of Ward 1 along with DL3, Nathupur, Sikanderpur and other adjoining areas; whereas the rest of DLF2 will be part of Ward 2 which includes Vill. Sarhaul, Udyog Vihar, Dundahera, etc.
What does this mean for DLF2 residents? The residents falling under different wards will not just be divided in different polling booths, but have been marked as divided administratively by the corporation. This implies the residents have to vote for different set of councillors and any chances of a Phase 2 resident’s representation as a MCG councillor seems bleak.
The different councillors may not know the ground realities and may differ in approach and opinions which will only create a conflict against the best interest of residents of DLF2. Say for a work on BVM, the residents may have to run to two different MCG councillors. This will only end up with everyone running pillar to post with no results. Any futuristic MCG takeover will only make matters worse in this scenario.
Ever since the notice was received, residents from all blocks, who always stand united as a family and have a common RWA, have not let this just pass away. Many residents wrote to the DC office asking for a recall for this ward structure which divides a small colony into parts. More than 350 emails were sent to DC Gurugram and the CM office and a large number met up the District Commissioner to hand over the letter of objection.
Taking cognisance of this request, the matter has been transferred to the office of Sh. Naresh Kumar, MCG Joint Commissioner Zone 3. Residents met with him on 12th September to discuss this further and have been given assurance of it being raised for consideration.
RWA representatives also met with Mr.Jawahar Yadav, OSD to CM Haryana, to discuss the concern and he has raised it further to competent authorities.
There is no information on how long this decision may stay under deliberation and if the desired result may come before the upcoming elections. So we better brace ourselves and be very cautious when we participate in the MCG councillor elections.
