Kolkata: The KMC has submitted 285 observations from the delimitation hearings to the state urban development and municipal affairs department. During the hearings, many political parties raised objections to booths being shifted from one ward to another, and at times, from one Assembly constituency to a neighbouring one.The hearings, conducted on four days, were held in response to objections and suggestions filed by political parties and individuals on the state’s decision of KMC delimitation, which will increase the number of wards from the current 144 to 209. The observations sent to the govt are conclusions, drawn by hearing officers after going through and noting down those suggestions and objections.“The hearing officers, all WBCS (executive) officers, prepared their reports after listening to each of those who appeared for the hearings, which ended on Wednesday. We submitted the reports to the state urban development and municipal affairs department,” said a KMC official.Among the complaints was one of missing booths. Kasba MLA Javed Khan told TOI that two booths from Ward 66 were missing from both Kasba and neighbouring Entally Assembly constituencies. A CPM functionary said booths were missing in 23 wards.A KMC official admitted there might have been some omissions while preparing a draft of revised ward boundaries, but the errors were corrected after they were pointed out or when KMC officials reviewed the documents. “There may have been some mistakes while preparing the list with booths in each ward. If there were some missing booths, we corrected them,” said the official.
