Civic polls on fast track
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Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy convened an informal Cabinet meeting on Thursday after returning from New Delhi. He conveyed his intention to hold elections to municipalities and municipal corporations based on 2001 Census data instead of 2011 census. Prior to the Cabinet meeting, he asked the municipal and urban development authorities to explore the possibilities of holding elections to civic bodies, whose term expired by September 29, 2010, as soon as possible.
However, the issue of holding these elections is tricky as the state government had given an undertaking to the AP High Court recently, that it would hold elections to civic bodies based on the 2011 Census. The advocate-general A. Sudarshan Reddy told the Chief Minister that the government cannot hold the polls without getting permission from the HC due to the undertaking.
According to official sources the state government now plans to go ahead and hold elections based on the 2001 data. It had received a communication from the director-general of Census office that it would take six more months for them to furnish the Census data of 2011.
While submitting an affidavit before the High Court on February 29, 2012, the state government had stated that the entire population figures of 2011 Census were not available as on that date and it will be published in the month of March by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. According to the affidavit, the process of Census 2011 was scheduled to be completed on March 31 and after that the state government required about 95 days to finalise the reservation of wards and divisions for the SC and STs and also the delimitation of wards/divisions as per law. The government also argued that if the reservation of seats to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were finalised by adopting figures of the 2001 Census, it might deprive the due and legitimate opportunities to reserved categories.
The High Court permitted the state government to hold elections to municipalities and municipal corporations of the state within four months after the date of publication 2011 Census data. However, the Chief Minister is now determined to hold the elections to civic bodies.
Any further delay would have an adverse impact on receiving funds from the Central government for various developmental activities in urban areas of the state.
When the authorities explained to him about the legal implication, the Chief Minister asked them to clear the hurdles quickly and ensure that polls are held within 60 days.
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