Kottayam: The department of Local Self Government is moving forward with ward delimitation steps before local body elections though uncertainty looms over voters' list for the polls to be held later this year.
The department released the number of additional wards and reserved seats. According to the data, there will be 10,200 women in the administrative councils of the Local Self Government institutions. This includes the number of women hailing from scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities.
In the last elections, 9,530 seats were reserved for women. 8,870 wards of 940 grama panchayats will have women councillors. In 2015 elections, there were 8,260 reserved seats for women.
1,153 seats in 152 block panchayats and 117 seats in 14 district panchayats will be reserved for women. There are 19,915 wards in total across district, block and grama panchayats. Of this, grama panchayath will have 17,317 seats and block panchayats will have 2,252 and district panchayats 346 seats.
Scheduled Castes will have 1,758 seats including seats reserved for women. 35 seats are reserved in district councils. There are 299 seats for Scheduled Tribes in grama panchayats. The district panchayats will have seven reserved seats for ST. All seats of Idamalakkudi and Idukki are reserved for ST.
Ward delimitation is done on the basis of the government's decision to increase the number of seats in local self government institutions.
As per an earlier notification of the department, the state will have additional 1,378 wards.