By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
Garhwal Post Bureau
Nainital, 15 Jul: Just days after the Uttarakhand High Court had made it clear in no uncertain terms that it is not postponing the panchayat elections due to be held later this month, it is now hearing a PIL filed seeking postponement of the Panchayat polls in the 12 districts of the state. The next hearing in this case has been fixed for tomorrow.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Dehradun resident Baijnath, seeks postponement of the panchayat elections in 12 districts owing to the ongoing monsoon season, Kanwar Yatra, and the Char Dham pilgrimage. In this case, the court has directed the Police Department to submit a detailed report on law & order arrangements and fixed the next hearing tomorrow.
During the virtual proceedings, the Director General of Police (DGP) and the Secretary of the Panchayati Raj Department appeared before the court via video conferencing. Both the officials assured the bench that adequate arrangements were in place to manage the overlapping of major events. The police administration submitted that 30 per cent of the state police force has already been deployed for the Kanwar Mela, while 10 per cent is managing the Char Dham Yatra. Another 10 per cent has been kept in reserve for the conduct of elections. The department has also constituted a contingency force to respond to any untoward incidents during this period.
The State Election Commission, while defending its decision to go ahead with the elections, submitted that there is no operational difficulty in carrying out the electoral process as planned. The Election Commission explained that the first phase of polling is scheduled after the return of the initial batch of Kanwar pilgrims, who hail largely from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh. It further clarified that the districts significantly impacted by the Kanwar Mela have been assigned to the second phase of polling to avoid logistics overlap.
The DGP also apprised the court that law enforcement has acted against unruly Kanwariyas who were found misbehaving with shopkeepers and women and playing loud music in public spaces, and cases have been registered accordingly. The court has asked for the full report to be submitted tomorrow and will continue hearing the matter thereafter.
Petitioner Baijnath has contended that conducting elections amidst such a high-pressure administrative period puts both the public and the machinery at unnecessary risk. He underlined that the police, SDRF, and district administrations are already stretched thin managing flood control and disaster response efforts due to heavy rains across several districts. He submitted that a postponement till August would be a more prudent decision in light of current circumstances.
It may be recalled that, just days ago, the Uttarakhand High Court clarified that it had not issued any stay order on the panchayat elections, countering certain misleading reports circulating in some sections of the media. In its earlier observation, the court had only sought reports from relevant departments to evaluate ground preparedness but had made it categorically clear that there was no legal barrier against conducting the elections as scheduled.
According to the political analysts, the fresh PIL again creates another confusion over holding of the elections as scheduled since the process to conduct the elections as scheduled is already underway. Today, for the second day, the election symbols were distributed to the candidates. While it is true that Uttarakhand remains vulnerable to landslides and flash floods during the monsoon, same holds true even for the month of August which is when the petitioner has urged the elections to be held.
