The term is going to end in November, but many election formalities have not been completed yet.
Dehradun. Municipal body elections in Uttarakhand may be postponed for the time being. The government may have proposed a timetable of 75 days in view of the elections, but given the circumstances, it does not seem possible to implement it. The reason is that the voter lists of municipal bodies have not been revised yet and this work takes at least three months.
Apart from this, the report from the single dedicated commission regarding OBC reservation in civic bodies has also not been made available to the government. In such a situation, it is believed that civic elections can be conducted only after the Lok Sabha elections. The number of municipal bodies (Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council and Nagar Panchayat) in the state is 110. Of these, elections are not held in three, while the tenure of two is to be completed next year. The tenure of the remaining bodies is going to end in November. Elections are to be held in these. There is a provision in the Local Bodies Act to hold elections 15 days before or after the end of the tenure of the local bodies. In case of no elections, administrators can be appointed for six months.
Preparations are going on for the civic elections and in this sequence a timetable of 75 days has also been proposed, but all the important works have not been completed yet. The most important among these is the revision of voter lists, which takes the most time and the initiative for this has not been started yet.
For revision of voter lists, provisional voter list is prepared after house-to-house survey. After this, time is given to include the names of the missing persons as well as to submit objections and claims for correction in the names etc. Only after their disposal is the final voter list prepared.
Not only this, determining OBC reservation in civic bodies is also no less challenging. The reason is that the single-member Verma Commission, formed in view of the actual situation of OBCs in all the bodies, is busy in its work. Some time back the government had extended the tenure of the commission. OBC reservation in civic bodies is to be decided on the basis of the report of the commission. Along with this, other reservations are also to be determined. On receiving the report that reservation and delimitation has been decided, the State Election Commission will take steps towards revising the voter list.
