Congress Govt in Catch-22 situation over local body elections, BC reservation

While the government cannot hold the elections without completing the reservation process as per Supreme Court orders, the gram panchayats will not receive the Central funds without an elected governing body.

Hyderabad: More than 10 months after the term of gram panchayats in Telangana expired, the State government is caught in a Catch-22 situation over conducting elections to the rural local bodies. While the government cannot hold the elections without completing the reservation process as per Supreme Court orders, the gram panchayats will not receive the Central funds without an elected governing body.

With this, uncertainty surrounds the rural local body elections in Telangana, including gram panchayats, mandal parishads, and zilla parishads, due to delays in finalising Backward Class (BC) reservations. This is also likely to take time since to finalise BC reservations, the Caste Census has to be completed. The household survey as part of the census began barely two weeks ago, with officials saying only 72 per cent of 1.16 crore households were completed so far. Hopes are that the exercise might be completed by November end.

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The term of gram panchayats in the State expired on February 1 this year and the State government had appointed special officers in their place. The term of the MPTCs and ZPTCs ended on July 3.

Elections, originally planned for January, were postponed due to the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. While Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy hinted at holding elections shortly after the Lok Sabha results, they got delayed due to the delay in finalising BC reservations. The Panchayat Raj (PR) Act, 2018, mandates that reservations for gram panchayat elections should be in force for 10 years.

The Supreme Court mandates BC reservations be finalised before elections. The BC Commission, tasked with submitting a report, needs two more months. Meanwhile, BC organizations demand the Congress fulfill its promise of 42 per cent reservations in local bodies, up from the current 22 per cent. Any increase would require amending the Panchayat Raj Act and Parliament’s approval, delaying polls further.

However, the delay in elections have cast a shadow on the Central funds to the gram panchayats. Due to absence of elected bodies, Central funds worth about Rs 1,200 crore were not released to the State which in turn deprived funds to the gram panchayats, affecting their day to day functioning and halting development works.

“Unless there is an elected body, the Centre will not release funds. However, if the elections are held, the Centre will release funds for all the pending months at once,” a senior official in the Panchayat Raj department told Telangana Today.

The State Election Commission has already begun preparations and completed necessary procedures including updating voters’ list. Sources said a file has been sent to the Chief Minister for consideration, but it is unlikely to get a green signal without finalising the BC reservations.

The SEC would need two to three weeks to fine tune its arrangements before releasing the election notification. It is also yet to receive the latest voters list from the Election Commission of India and also the State government’s orders on BC reservations. Based on these reports, the SEC has to finalise the number of wards/divisions and announce reserved seats accordingly.