Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 29: After cancellation of elections to the Block Development Councils (BDCs), the Government has decided not to take any chances with the polls to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Elections to two Municipal Corporations and 87 Municipal Councils and Committees would be announced soon after the revision of electoral rolls and other minor formalities and completed by the end of December, the deadline set by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Official sources told the Excelsior that cancellation of the BDC elections for want of reservations to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women has already sent a wrong message at the grass root level and the Government has decided to compensate it by holding elections to the ULBs after nearly three years by the end of this year.
“Dates of the elections would be announced by the Election Authority (the Chief Electoral Officer) in consultations with Housing and Urban Development Department as soon as the revision of electoral rolls, undertaken for Jammu and Srinagar Municipal Corporations was completed and final rolls published”, sources said, adding that revision of voters for six Municipal Councils (three each in Jammu and Kashmir regions) and 81 Committees had been completed in April-May this year when the Government had planned to hold the elections to the ULBs.
Sources said the Housing and Urban Development Department had to ask the Election Authority to complete the election process by the end of December this year. A message to this effect could be conveyed by the middle of next month, they added and said the polling process was confined to towns and wouldn’t be effect by the early winter chill.
The Government proposed to cover the two Municipal Corporations in one phase and the Councils and the Committees in rest two phases.
The Election Authority had announced special revision of electoral rolls for Jammu and Srinagar Municipal Corporations this month, which would be completed in next few days with the publication of final rolls after inviting objections from the voters.
Sources said initially the Government wanted to increase number of the Municipal Committees and include more areas in some of the existing Corporations, Councils and Committees. However, since the process was time consuming and had lead to objections from the Panchayat members and other persons, the Government has decided to defer the move.
“We would increase number of the ULBs and increase areas of existing bodies but after holding elections to the present bodies”, sources said, adding that in no case the Government wants to defer the elections to ULBs and invite wrath of the people.
It may be mentioned that the Government had to cancel elections to the BDC even after announcement of the schedule by the Election Authority due to pressure from various quarters to the provision of reservations to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women. Such a provision, however, already existed in the ULBs.
Sources said the Government would go ahead with the elections in first phase in hilly areas and cover plain areas in next one or two phases as the winter has set in early this year.
The elections to ULBs were hanging fire for past over two and a half years now as all Municipal bodies had ceased to exist in March 2010. Elections to the ULBs were held in January-February 2005 after a gap of about 26 years as they had last been held in 1979. The Municipalities were formed in first week of March in 2005 and they completed their five years term in March 2010. Since then, the elections hadn’t been held to Municipal bodies.
During last elections held to the Municipalities, there were 14.34 lakh voters. With elections now being held after more than seven years, the number of electorates was expected to go up significantly especially with the inclusion of more Municipalities for holding elections and inclusion of new voters, who had attained the age of 18 during past seven and a half years. All eligible voters would be included during revision of voter lists.
The Central funds worth several crores had been blocked due to delay in holding of elections to the ULBs, sources said, adding though the funds are non-lapsable, they would be granted by the Centre to the State only when elections were held to the Municipalities.
With the completion of elections to the ULBs, two vacancies of the MLCs in the Legislative Council from the Municipal quota could also be fulfilled. One seat each was reserved in the Upper House from Jammu and Kashmir divisions.
After 2005 elections, Congress leader Arvinder Singh Micky had been elected from Municipal seat to the Upper House while Nizam-ud-Din Bhat of PDP had won from Kashmir.
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