The Election Authorities and the Government are set to order rotation of reserved seats for Municipal and Panchayat elections shortly while Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) PK Pole today extended date for revision and final publication of electoral rolls for ULBs to August 29 from initial August 25 after the officers engaged with revision exercise pointed out certain issues in the list.
State Election Commissioner (SEC) B R Sharma told the Excelsior that reserved seats in Panchayats have to be rotated and an exercise to this effect will be undertaken.
“Reserved seats have to be rotated after every election,” Sharma said.
There has been 33 percent reservation to women in the Panchayats. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes also enjoy reservation in both Sarpanch and Panch segments.
However, as per the sources, it’s not mandatory that every reserved seat will be rotated after every election. Rotation of seats reserved for SCs and STs will depend on population, they said.
“A similar exercise is also likely to be undertaken for the Urban Local Bodies,” they said. In ULBs also, women have been given 33 percent reservation besides the Wards are reserved for SCs and STs.
As per the officials, rotation of reserved seats has to be done by Directorates of Rural Development for Panchayats and offices of the Deputy Commissioners for Urban Local Bodies which include Municipal Corporations, Councils and Committees.
The State Election Commission is the Authority for conduct of Panchayat polls while the Chief Electoral Officer had to hold Municipal elections.
Meanwhile, CEO PK Pole today revised schedule for Special Revision of Municipal Electoral Rolls–2023 for Municipal Corporations, Councils and Committees.
Today was the last date for filing of claims and objections which has been extended up to August 18, two separate orders issued by Pole, for Corporations, Councils and Committees, said.
Special Camp at the Polling Stations will be held on August 13 while disposal of claims and objections will be done on August 22. August 26 is the date for updating the electoral rolls.
Final rolls for the ULBs, which were scheduled to be published on August 25 as per the previous order, will now be published on August 29.
The officers engaged in voter revision for Municipalities here have detected certain issues in the electoral rolls and sought extension in time for filing claims and objections by the voters, the date for which expired today.
As per the officials engaged in revision of Municipal electoral rolls, the voters who were deleted from the rolls in 2018 have again been included in the Municipal Electoral Rolls 2023.
They said supplement of Municipal Electoral Rolls 2018 and 2020 have not been included in the 2023 Rolls while transportation of electors which was done in 2018 and 2020 are again missing in the 2023 Rolls.
“Some electors of Municipal Electoral Rolls 2018 and Municipal Electoral Rolls 2020 were mistakenly included in other Wards of Municipal Electoral Rolls 2023. Corrections that were made in the Rolls 2018 and 2020 are again evident in the Rolls 2023,” the officers and officials said.
They pointed out that in some Wards, new voters for addition aren’t reflected in login of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).
As per the officials, the problems in lists have cropped up during data uploading by the NIC.
Elections to Panchayats and Municipalities can be announced by the Election Authorities only after voter lists are published and rotation of seats is completed.
Sources pointed out that term of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) will be complete on November 5 and that of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) on November 14 while terms of rest all Municipal bodies including Councils and Committees in the UT will end between October-November.
Five-year term of the Panchayats will end on January 9, 2024.
Term of Urban Local Bodies is counted from the day of their first meeting while that of Panchayats is taken into account the day they were constituted.
“In such a scenario, elections to Urban Local Bodies are required to be completed before the end of October and that of Panchayats in middle of December this year,” sources said.
Term of the Block Development Councils (BDCs) will end in October 2024 while the District Development Councils (DDCs) will complete their tenure in January 2026. (Daily Excelsior)
