Mohali MC elections: Know about Mohali's civic body
Harshabab Sidhu
Mohali, January 25, 2021: The elections of Municipal Corporation (MC) Mohali are approaching closer and the political atmosphere inside the city has started burning. The model code of conduct has already been imposed in the city as on February 14, the voting will be held from 8 am to 4 pm for the mayor of Mohali. The results of MC elections will be out on February 17. The date of withdrawal of nominations is February 5.
The elections will be conducted at a total of 50 wards of the city out of which 50 per cent, that is 25, have already been reserved for women candidates by the state election commission. In addition to these 25 seats, women can also contest from other seats/wards. Possibly, this will be the first time in the history of Mohali that the women strength is more in the house. Earlier, 33 per cent of total seats were being fixed for the women candidates. Also this time, the delimitation of all the 50 wards in Mohali have been modified following which previous ward numbers have been changed now.
The Congress, SAD and Azaad group have already announced their candidates on all the 50 seats.
Mohali MC area:
According to the information obtained from the various sources, the civic body of Mohali has total area of 32 square kilometres with the population of around 1.88 lakh. The area of MC, approximately in 7,000 acres, includes residential areas of Phase 1 to Phase 11, Sector 66 to 71 and Sector 76 to 80), six villages (Mohali, Kumbra, Madanpura, Shahimajra, Mataur and Sohana) and industrial area of Sector 72-75. There are around 50,000 buildings within the limits of Mohali MC. The sectors/phases have been divided into three to four parts while the villages have been divided into four to five parts as per the new delimitation. The distance between the boundaries of two wards is nearly 2.5 kilometres.
The history of Mohali's civic body:
In the year 1984, NAC (Notified Area Committee) was formed in Mohali and at that time there were 25 wards. After that in 1996, Municipal Council was formed in Mohali, having 31 wards, which remain in existence till 2011 when Municipal Corporation was formed here. The MC was provided with 50 wards following the rapid growth of city. In 2015, it was the first time when elections were held for the Municipal Corporation in Mohali.
The civic body is elected for the period of five years and the last five year term of the civic body ended on April 26, 2020. In the last term the Congress had 14 and the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) had 23, Azaad group led by Kulwant Singh had 10 councillors whereas two seats were won by independent councillors. In 2015, elections, 27 councillors including 10 councillors of Azaad group,14 councillors of Congress and two independent councilors, elected Kulwant as Mayor, but later in August 2017, Kulwant Singh joined SAD. The voter turnout in the previous MC elections was 60.48 per cent.