Mathkari challenges ward formation

DNA Correspondent The city president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vikas Mathkari, has filed a petition in the Bombay high court (HC) demanding that formation of municipal wards for the election to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) be cancelled, as the state election commission (SEC) has not followed the legal provisions in doing so.

While speaking to media persons in the city, Mathkari said the petition was admitted by the HC and the hearing was on.

Mathkari has stated in his petition that as per the legal provisions, the latest published census figures of the city have to be considered for deciding the number of municipal wards and the reserved seats in them for scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST).

The SEC has considered the provisional figures of Census 2011 of the city to decide the total number of seats in the PMC, which have increased from 144 to 152 on the basis of the increased population.  However, he said the SEC has considered the total number of SC and ST population decided in Census 2001, as the corresponding data of Census 2011 was not available.

SC and ST communities have to be given representation on the basis of share in population. As the SEC considered the figures of

Census 2001, the increased population of these communities in the last decade have not been considered. He said the SEC should follow the law and consider only the data published in the gazette about the census.