By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 18 May: The municipal bodies in Uttarakhand have been under the administrative control of the administrators for the past many months, as their term had ended on 2 December, last year. The elections were due in January or February but were delayed on several grounds. Now the latest reason to postpone the elections, once again, till September are the irregularities found in the electoral rolls. However, it is not clear why the electoral rolls used in the Parliamentary Polls cannot be used for the municipal polls.
Sources in the government have now claimed that the municipal polls in the state are likely to be held by late August or September. In view of this, the tenure of the administrators in the municipal bodies in the state will have to be extended further. This is likely to happen despite the fact that the government had assured the Uttarakhand High Court that the tenure of the administrators of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) will not be extended at any cost. However, now the government and the state election commission have, once again, found a “legitimate” ground for delaying the elections. Many irregularities have been found in the electoral rolls of the State Election Commission prepared for the ULB polls. Many names of voters have been found to be missing from the electoral rolls. In some cases, names of voters have been found to be entered in a different ward. Even the Opposition does not seem to be in a hurry for the municipal elections.
Sources added that the electoral rolls as revised may be published before final revision any time after 6 June, when the Model Code of Conduct in force in Uttarakhand and across the country in view of ongoing parliamentary polls, is going to be lifted.
Urban Development Minister Prem Chand Aggarwal has stated that all the missing names in the voters’ list are being added and all the shortcomings are being rectified. He held a meeting with the officials concerned in this regard.
It may be recalled that the elections for the Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils and the Nagar Panchayats of the state have not been held even though their tenure ended on 2 December, last year. The tenure of the administrators appointed by the state government in various ULBs will end on 2 June, but the government does not have any option but to extend the tenure. However, the problem is that the High Court has directed the government that the tenure of the administrators should not be extended any further. Therefore, the government is learnt to be seeking legal opinion in this regard.
It may be pertinent to point here that, as per the provisions of the Municipal Act as applicable in Uttarakhand, the administrators can be appointed only for six months, i.e., till 2 June, but the code of conduct for Lok Sabha elections is applicable till June 6. Therefore, civic elections could not be held earlier. At least two more months’ time is required for implementing OBC reservation, delimitation in bodies, issuing reservation of posts, etc. Work on it will be able to move forward only after the code of conduct ends on 6 June.
