According to official sources, a majority of deputy commissioners are ready with data (list of polling booths, villages, hoblies, maps, voters’ list both as per old and new assembly constituencies) to carve out new assembly boundaries. They are just waiting for the OCEO’s call to arrive at the headquarters in Bangalore (IPP centre), where delimitation experts will give finishing touches.
Work on five districts -- Mandya, Kodagu, Chamarajnagar, Haveri and Belgaum -- has been completed and five more will be ready by Monday.
The outgoing Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) R Ramsheshan is spearheading the exercise. He has directed DCs to ensure that officials do not go on leave without permission and to be ready to come to Bangalore for the task.
Sources say Ramsheshan has taken up delimitation on a direction from the CEC. Gopalaswami, who will review the delimitation during his State visit to the State, may even announce holding of election by May if satisfied with the delimitation work.
DCs’ task
The OCEO has on February 23 dispatched a detailed format or procedure to be followed for delimitation to all DCs. Using the format, the local revenue officials would complete the ground work. It has also sent a set of 11 forms specially designed for this purpose. “If all these forms are filled as per the procedure, nearly 70 per cent of the work is done. The process will be finalised by the experts at the headquarters at IPP centre in Bangalore in just a few hours,” sources explained. If all goes well, one of the DCs said, all 224 constituencies could be delimited by March 15, a week ahead of one month deadline that the OCEO has set for itself to complete the task.
“With the electoral rolls scheduled to be finalised on March 10, the CEC, if convinced that the delimitation can be done, may ask the OCEO to publish the draft delimited constituencies and call for public objections,” the official said.
“If a DC, due to pressure from some quarters, say that he needs more time to do, then he would be given more assistance to work but cannot escape by giving lame excuses”, an officer said.
