LAHORE, Sept 30: The Punjab government has appointed commissioners, district coordination officers (DCOs) and assistant commissioners as divisional delimitation authorities, delimitation officers (DOs) and assistant delimitation officers (ADOs), respectively, after it notified the Punjab Local Governments (Delimitation) Rules, 2013.

Documents made available to Dawn reveal that the core objective of these appointments was to enforce new delimitation rules in the areas under the jurisdiction of these officers. “Since the aforementioned officers will act as delimitation authorities/officers, they should initiate and facilitate the delimitation process under the requisite guidelines,” a letter issued by the local government and community development department reads.

Another letter issued by the local government secretary Jawad Rafique Malik empowers the commissioners under Section 6 of the PLG-Rules-2013 to receive, hear and decide the public grievances and objections regarding the proposed delimitation of the union councils and wards within their jurisdiction with immediate effect. Moreover, the department has also delegated various powers to all these officers under section 146 of the Punjab Local Government Act-2013 (XVIII of 2013) and Section 8 of the PLG (Delimitation) Rules-2013 so that they could conduct the process in this regard.

“The DOs and ADOs will be responsible for determining and notifying the number of UCs in a district council on the basis of area population. They will also determine and notify the number of UCs/Wards in a municipal committee, which shall not be consisting of less than 11 and more than 50 UCs/Wards,” a notification issued by the department states.

The other tasks to be performed by the DOs and ADOs under the rules include determining and notifying the number of UCs/Wards in a municipal corporation on the basis of population. They are also liable to decide, settle or revise number of UCs in a metropolitan corporation that shall not comprise less than 150 UCs. The officials will also notify a UC or Ward on the basis of the final list published under rule-7 of the delimitation rules containing detail of the area included in a UC/Ward.

After appointment of DOs/ADOs, the officials expect increase of around 100 UCs or so in the Punjab capital alone. “A UC is declared when its population ranges between 20,000 to 25,000. At present we estimate the city’s population at around 8 to 10 million whereas the city comprises 150 UCs,” the official, who requested anonymity, added.

He said the process for the delimitation of areas according to their population could add to the number of UCs in the city by around 100 or more. “So the total number of UCs could be 250 or more after completion of the delimitation process,” he said.