The State Delimitation Commission said on Tuesday that it has completed the ward delimitation exercise in the local body wards of Kerala. In the final leg of the exercise, the Commission published the final notification on the ward delimitation in the 14 district panchayats.

The Commission headed by State Election Commissioner A. Shajahan said it finalised the notifications on ward delimitation in the three-tier panchayats, municipalities and corporations after hearing all petitioners and examining all the complaints and objections that were filed.

This was also the first time that the Commission opted for the open source software-based Qfield app for the delimitation exercise to map ward boundaries. This ensured precision and speed, Mr. Shajahan said, reiterating that the digital maps can be used by the government, local bodies and other agencies for planning and development purposes.

It was in June 2024 that the State government issued a notification forming the delimitation commission for redrawing the boundaries of local body wards. The mammoth exercise was conducted in three phases, where wards in the grama panchayats, municipalities and corporations were covered in the first, block panchayat wards in the second and district panchayat wards in the third. The Commission had as its members Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar, and other government secretaries K. Biju, S. Harikishore and K. Vasuki. Local Self Government joint director S. Josnamol served as secretary to the Commission.

Revision of number of wards

Last year, the State government had issued a notification revising the number of wards based on the 2011 census population. This entailed an increase in the number of wards in grama, block and district panchayats, municipalities and Corporations from 21,900 to 23,612. In the 87 municipalities, the number of wards rose to 3,241, in the six Corporations to 421, and in the 941 grama panchayats, to 17,337. In the 152 block panchayats, the number of wards went up to 2267, and in the 14 district panchayats, to 346.

Cherpulassery municipality and the Thrikkadeeri panchayat in Palakkad district were exempted from the current delimitation as the wards in the two local bodies had been reorganised in 2015.

After holding public hearings on the draft notifications, the Commission had published the final notifications on the ward delimitation in the grama panchayats on May 19 and municipalities and corporations on May 27. The final notification on the block panchayats was issued on July 10 and notification on the district panchayat wards, on August 12.