GP polls: Sarpanch, wards reservations finalised, Kothagudem to have 460 ST sarpanches

Reservations for sarpanch and ward seats in Khammam and Kothagudem districts have been finalised, with most seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Kothagudem will have 460 ST sarpanches, while Khammam reserved 171 sarpanch seats for STs

Khammam: Reservations for sarpanch and ward member seats have been finalised in Khammam and Kothagudem districts, with the majority of sarpanch and ward seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, while Backward Classes got fewer seats.

In Khammam, there are 571 gram panchayats and 5214 wards. The reason for reserving the majority of seats for STs was based on their population ratio in three categories—Scheduled Area, 100 percent ST GPs and Non-Scheduled Area. As a result, most of the seats went to STs after the general category.

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As many as 171 sarpanch seats were reserved for STs, 236 for general category (unreserved), 54 for BCs and 110 for SCs. There are 11 gram panchayats with 100 percent ST population, and in those GPs sarpanch seats were reserved for STs.

Likewise, of the 5214 wards, 1161 wards have been reserved for STs, 935 for SCs, 697 for BCs and 2421 wards are in the unreserved category. Fifty percent of seats have been reserved for women in all categories through a lottery.

In Kothagudem, no sarpanch seats were reserved for BC (men), BC (women) or SC (women). Of the 471 sarpanch seats, 460 have been reserved for STs, two for SCs and nine for the general category, which are in Burgampahad, Aswaraopet, Aswapuram and Dammapet mandals.

Gram panchayat polls will not be held in Aswaraopet and Sujatha Nagar mandals as the former was made a municipality and the latter merged with Kothagudem Municipal Corporation. This was the reason BCs and SC (women) did not get any reserved seats.

Similarly, of the 4168 wards, 2648 have been reserved for STs, 18 for SCs, 17 for BCs and 1485 are in the general category.