EC receives report on rotation of reserved Wards, decision soon

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 10: The Election Commission has set the process into motion for holding elections to 78 Municipal bodies including two Corporations and six Councils after receiving reports from all Deputy Commissioners on reservation of Wards for women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The State Election Commission will segregate and publish draft electoral rolls of all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) by the middle of this month, anytime on or after February 15 and give 15-days time for objections before final publication of rolls.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shantmanu told the Excelsior that the process for holding elections to 78 Municipal bodies after a gap of about 11 years has been set into motion after receiving report from all 22 Deputy Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir on reservation of Wards of the ULBs, falling within their territorial jurisdiction.
“We have received the report of all 22 Deputy Commissioners on reservation of Wards of the ULBs. The DCs had earlier been asked to submit the report on rotation of reserved Wards within 15 days after completing the exercise in consultations with the concerned departments. The DCs have submitted their reports,” Shantmanu said, adding the reports were being studied by the Election Department and would be finalized in next about one week.
Earlier, there was a view within the Election Commission to hold the Municipal elections without rotating the reserved Wards but later the Commission had left the matter up to the Deputy Commissioners and asked them to submit their report to this effect. The DCs had been asked to examine rotation of Wards and report back to the Election Commission within a fortnight, which they have done.
Sources said there was a general view that rotation of Wards could take time and, therefore, the Commission should go ahead with the existing reserved Wards but a final decision would be taken within a week.
In another decision aimed at expediting the process for holding the Urban Local Bodies elections in the State, the Election Commission would be publishing segregated draft electoral rolls for all 78 ULBs by the middle of February i.e. anytime after February 15 after due notification.
The Election Commission has nearly completed the process for segregation of electoral rolls of the ULBs from Panchayats and would be publishing the draft electoral rolls of the ULBs only, anytime on or after February 15 giving 15 days time to the electorates falling within the Municipal limits for objections.
“During the 15 days period, the voters can opt for addition and deletion of names within the Municipalities,” sources said, adding the final rolls would be published after 15 days notice.
The electoral rolls had been finalized by the Election Commission after completing summary revision and published on January 8 for the entire State.
As far as dates of the elections were concerned, sources said, a decision on them would vest with the Government at the helm of affairs when final rolls for Municipalities are published. Governor NN Vohra had recently directed the CEO J&K to go for the ULB elections in April.
Sources said the Election Commission had to keep mandatory time of 45 days between the date of announcement of elections and first phase of polling, which means if the elections were announced on March 5, the first phase would start on April 20.
The election will be held for 78 ULBs including two Municipal Corporations of Jammu and Srinagar, six Councils (Udhampur, Kathua and Poonch in Jammu region, Sopore, Baramulla and Anantnag in Kashmir) and 70 Municipalities including one each in Leh and Kargil.
The elections to the ULBs were last held in January-February 2005 and the elected Municipalities had completed their term in March 2010. Since then, the elections were not held to them.
Former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had also given go ahead for Municipal elections in March-April. However, after imposition of Governor’s Rule, Governor NN Vohra had held special review meeting for the elections with Chief Secretary BR Sharma and CEO Shantmanu and directed for holding the elections in April.
It may be mentioned here that the State was about to lose Rs 165 crores worth grant for the Municipalities this financial year in the absence of elected ULBs but the Central Government had assured the State that it would release the grant for current financial year of 2015-16 as a special case as this was first year of the new Government.
At the same time, the Centre had made it clear that the ULB grants wouldn’t be released from the next financial year if the elected Municipalities were not in place.

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