Telangana SEC to HC: Need 20 days time to hold ULB polls
HYDERABAD: Making it clear that the Telangana State Election Commission has no role in delimitation of wards or in identifying reservation of wards, the SEC told the State HC that after the determination of reservation of wards by the TS government, it requires a maximum of 20 days to conduct elections to the ULBs.
The SEC also said that the municipal electoral rolls which were prepared based on the latest available Assembly constituency electoral rolls, were published on July 16, 2019 and being corrected and updated continuously, and were kept ready for conduct of elections without any delay subject to further orders of the court on the matter of delimitation. On June 25 this year, the HC while dealing with a petition by SEC, directed TS govt to forthwith start the process of wards delimitation and complete the entire exercise within 109 days with maximum leverage of 10 days.
The Court directed the SEC to complete the election process within 30 days after pre-election process was completed by the State government. In pursuance of the above court order, the principal secretary of municipal administration and urban development concerned informed the SEC that the State government has now decided to go ahead with elections under the existing Acts and as a result would like to complete the entire election process by July end, his July, the SEC noted.
The SEC, represented by its secretary M Ashok Kumar, filed counter affidavit in the PIL filed by advocate K Anjukumar Reddy from Nirmal district seeking stay on issuance of notification to conduct municipal elections and to re-conduct entire pre-poll exercise in the manner as prescribed under the Telangana Municipalities Act.
Referring to the difficulties faced in preparing electoral rolls during 2016 GHMC elections because of hazy demarcation of municipal wards, the SEC, in its affidavit, said that it has advised the director of municipal administration and all the municipal commissioners in the State to ensure that the ward boundaries were clearly demarcated as to avoid complaints. As for municipal electoral rolls, the commission requires seven days time for revision of these rolls after the final notification of the revised delimitation, if any. Further, after the determination of reservation of wards by the State, the SEC requires a maximum of 20 days to conduct ULB elections, it urged the court to dismiss the said PIL which was expected to come up for hearing this week.