By Our Staff Reporter
Nainital, 7 Aug: A petition has been filed in the Uttarakhand High Court against the state government for not holding municipal elections in the state despite clear directions of the High Court. In his plea, the petitioner said government has not followed the court order directing it to hold the municipal elections on time.
Hearing in this regard was held today by the High Court on the PIL. After hearing the plea, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal has fixed the date of next hearing on 13 August. The PIL had claimed that during the hearing on a different PIL in this regard held in January, Secretary, Urban Development, had appeared in the court and committed that municipal elections would be held in the state within next six months. In another hearing in this regard held in April, the government again promised before the Court that it would hold municipal elections within next six months but has failed to comply with the direction of the court.
The petitioner, Mohammed Anwar, a resident of Jaspur in district Udham Singh Nagar, reminded the court that the tenure of municipalities and municipal bodies had ended in December, 2023. Since then, 8 months have passed but the government is yet to announce the schedule for the municipal elections in the state. On the contrary, it has extended the term of its administrators in the bodies, the petition added. The petitioner has further claimed that due to the fact that the civic bodies are still under the control of administrators appointed by the government, the common people are facing lot of difficulties. It may be recalled that an administrator is appointed when a civic body is dissolved at the end of its term and the government is required to hold elections within the next six months. The petition has appealed to the court to direct the government once again to hold the civic elections at the earliest.
