A seven-and-a-half-hour-long hearing was held on Tuesday to address objections and suggestions regarding the new ward formation for the upcoming NMC polls. The session, which took place at the municipal headquarters, was attended by 100 of the 115 objectors. The hearing was overseen by Shravan Hardikar, the Managing Director of Maharashtra Metro, who was appointed as the authorised officer by the state's UDD.
Municipal Commissioner Dr. Abhijeet Chaudhari was also present. Between August 23 and September 4, a total of 115 objections and suggestions were submitted to the municipal election department. Notices were issued, and the objectors were invited to appear at the headquarters at 11 am on Tuesday. Among the objections, 60 were related to boundary changes, 16 to voter lists and ward structures according to assembly constituencies, 25 related to naming within the boundaries, and 7 concerned reservation.
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Arrangements were made for the aggrieved persons to sit in the lobby of the headquarters, from where their names were called for the hearing. Police personnel, NDS jawans, and security guards were deployed. The final objector present at the headquarters was called and heard after 6 pm.
During the proceedings, Additional Commissioner Vaishnavi B, Deputy Commissioners Vijaya Bankar and Milind Meshram, Deputy Director of Town Planning Girish Godbole and others were present.
The objections and suggestions were classified into four categories: Objections to ward boundaries, objections related to voter lists and ward formation as per assembly constituencies, objections related to naming within the boundaries and objections concerning reservation. All objections raised by the participants were recorded in detail.
MLAs Among Objectors
Among those who filed objections to the draft ward formation were legislators as well. MLC Adv Abhijit Wanjari raised objections regarding wards 23, 26, 27, and 29, while MLA Krishna Khopde raised objections concerning ward 4.
In addition, former BJP president Jitendra alias Bunty Kukde, former Standing Committee Chairman Avinash Thakre, Vijay Zalke, and several former corporators also filed objections and presented their arguments, which were heard in detail by authorised officer Shravan Hardikar.