Wards in GVMC likely to go up from 72 to 81

Visakhapatnam: With the GVMC initiating the process of delimitation of wards under its purview, the number will surge up from the present 72 to 81, each ward comprising a population of 23,230 or with a variation of 10 per cent for the administrative convenience.

The city planning wing of the GVMC completed the ward-wise delimitation process and a draft has been submitted to the higher-ups for gazette notification.

Once the notification is issued, suggestions and objections, if any, will be sought from the public for ward-wise reservations.

While the number of wards in zone one will increase by one from the present six, the wards in zone three will come down to 10 from the existing 12. The number in zones four and five will go up by one more ward each.

The count in zone six will increase to nine wards from the present seven. Zone two records no change. Besides, there will be four wards in Anakapalle and two in Bheemunipatnam.

Officials from the city planning wing say that the demarcation of wards is all set to take shape soon with geographical boundaries for better administration.

After calling for the suggestions and objections from the public and duly verifying the same, the report will be submitted to the State government through Director of Municipal Administration along with the approval of the Special Officer.

According to Municipal Commissioner M Hari Narayanan, the division of wards will be finalised once the State government issues the GO specifying the ward boundaries.

The GVMC has gone into the preparatory mode in view of the High Court's direction to the State government to conduct civic polls within six months.