The Hindu : Kerala News : Civic polls likely to be delayed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Civic polls likely to be delayed

By N. J. Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 22. Elections to the local bodies institutions in the State scheduled for September are likely to be delayed due to the tardy progress in delimitation of wards, it is learnt.

Though the State Election Commission has started the preliminary process for holding the elections in right earnest, the measures for delimiting the municipal and corporation wards are moving at a very slow pace.

The Government has already formed a five-member delimitation panel comprising the State Election Commissioner, N. Mohandas, the Local Administration Secretary, P. Kamalkutty, the Programme Implementation Secretary, Jiji Thompson, the General Administration Secretary, K. K. Vijayakumar and the Tourism Secretary, E. K. Bharat Bhushan.

Official sources told The Hindu here today that the committee had already had two sittings to discuss its functional modalities but could not make much headway since the Bill on delimitation has not been piloted in the Assembly.

Delimitation is a Herculean task and would take at least three months to complete the process, sources said.

Number of wards

The Government has to fix the maximum and minimum number of wards in each panchayat, municipality and corporation. At present, there are 13,259 wards in 991 grama panchayats, 1,638 in 152 block panchayats, 307 in 14 district panchayats, 1,597 in 53 municipalities and 298 in five corporations. The number would increase if the minimum number of wards in each local self-government institution were put at 12 and the maximum at 22 as per the census report of 2001, sources said.

After passing the Bill on delimitation, the number of wards in each local body has to be finalised and a notification should be issued. The Election Commission's proposal for revising the voters' list has not yet been okayed by the Government, but the list should be renewed before conducting the elections and it would take at least three months to complete the revision. The election notification should be issued 30 days before the prescribed date.

Ad hoc arrangement

Delaying the elections beyond six months is not easy too. The Panchayati Raj Act does not have provisions to extend the tenure of the existing committees.

Once the tenure expires, the Government has to appoint either a special officer or a three-member officials' panel as administrative executive council. But this is an ad hoc arrangement and cannot be extended beyond six months, sources said. The next Assembly elections are scheduled for May 2006 and the Government will have to start the preparations at least six months in advance.

The panchayat elections are held under the Panchayati Raj Act and the Municipal Act and the Assembly elections under the Representation of People's Act. Separate voters' lists have to be prepared for both elections and both elections cannot be held simultaneously, sources said. With hardly six months left, the Government will have to act within the next fortnight if the elections are to be held within the stipulated time. The Bill should be piloted in the current session and enable the panel to expedite the process. Any delay in taking timely action would hamper the entire process, sources said.

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