Reservations for the SC/STs, BCs and also women for the upcoming municipal polls to the 130-odd urban local bodies next month will be decided after the completion of the revision of the photo electoral rolls on January 5, said Director of Municipal Administration T.K. Sreedevi on Monday.
While reservation of wards for the SC/STs will be decided on the basis of the 2011 population census, the BCs wards will be decided after the publication of the final voters list on January 5. Wards division of women for up to 50% will be decided by a draw of lots on the same day, said Ms. Sreedevi, also the State Election Authority.
“There has been lot of misconception about reservation of wards. The election schedule was announced last week but it was only done to prepare the citizens to gear up for the polls by checking voters lists for inclusions. The election notification will be issued on January 7 by the State Election Commission and this is the correct procedure as is practised by the Election Commission of India (ECI),” she told a press conference.
Revision of voters lists has begun on Monday and applications will be received till January 4 for inclusion into the voters list.
Reservation for the wards will be taken for the entire Telangana State of all the 141 ULBs, although 130 are going for the polls on the very day.
Elections for the rest have been held up due to various issues like litigation, elected body continuing to be in place and incomplete integration work with the nearby Gram Panchayats. These include - Nakrekal, Jadcherla, Palavancha, Manuguru, Mandamarri and Zaheerabad.
Municipal corporations of Greater Hyderabad, Warangal, Khammam, Siddipet and Atchampet are not having elections as the elected bodies are in place.
The DMA said the forthcoming elections are being held for the first time under the newly introduced Telangana Municipal Act and hence, will start on a clean slate. It also meant wards’ reservations for SC/STs, BCs and women will hold good for another municipal election too.
An interesting feature of the elections to be conducted on ballot paper will be that the norm of disallowing candidates from having more than two children has been dispensed with as per the new Act.
There are about 1.35 crore voters in all, including 41.28 lakh in municipalities. Polling is on January 22 and entire poll process will be completed by January 25, she added.
