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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Priyanka Kakodkar | TNN

Mumbai: Ward lottery for OBC category in BMC on July 29

MUMBAI: In view of the Supreme Court order allowing an OBC quota of up to 27% in local body polls, the State Election Commission (SEC) has announced the lottery programme in 14 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, to accommodate the OBC quota in open category electoral wards.

The lottery will take place on July 29. Suggestions and objections will be invited between July 30 and August 2. The final reservations will be published on August 5. In the lottery, besides picking lots for the OBC category, 50% seats in both the open and OBC categories will also be earmarked for women.

In the BMC, 27% of the wards will be reserved for OBCs. The quota will apply to 63 of the 236 seats. There will be 156 general category seats, 15 seats reserved for scheduled castes and one seat reserved for scheduled tribes.

According to the Banthia Commission, on whose report the apex court granted the quota, the proportion of OBCs in the BMC area is 27.7%. It has also listed the proportion of scheduled castes in the BMC area as 6.5% and scheduled tribes as 1% of the population, as per the 2011 census.

Besides Mumbai, the lottery for OBC quota seats will be held in the municipal corporations of Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivali, Kolhapur, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Nashik, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Amravati, Akola and Nagpur.

The SEC has also announced the OBC quota lottery programme for 25 zilla parishads, 284 panchayat samitis, 115 municipal councils and nine nagar panchayats. In zilla parishads, the lottery will include those for SC and ST reservations as well since this exercise had not been conducted for zilla parishads.

However, in the case of 92 municipal councils and 4 nagar panchayats where the SEC had stayed polls since the SC verdict was awaited, the status quo continues. The SEC has sought clarity from the apex court whether polls here can accommodate the OBC quota.

The apex court order had said local body polls where the process was already notified by the time of the hearing should go ahead. By then polls for 271 gram panchayats had been notified and the process for 92 municipal councils and four nagar panchayats had been stayed. However, the court said that polls for all 376 of these local bodies should go ahead sans the quota.

The SEC has sought clarity on whether the polls to the 92 municipal councils and 4 nagar panchayats can accommodate the OBC quota.

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