Hyderabad: After dilly-dallying on holding elections to rural local bodies, the state govt has reportedly decided to go ahead with holding polls to the local bodies in July. Though Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) has already made all preparations a couple of months ago, the decision on the elections was kept on hold by the govt with the outcome of caste survey and demand from the various BC organisations that the elections should be held only after enhancing the BC reservations to 42% as promised by Congress.
Sources in the govt said the NDA govt’s decision on inclusion of caste census in general census, likely to begin this year-end, in fact bailed out the Congress govt from the issue as the caste census would resolve the problem permanently and legally. The assembly has already adopted two bills, BC reservations in local bodies and also education and employments to 42% separately, and they have been sent to the Centre for approval.
“The entire exercise of census, including caste census like collection, enumeration, compilation and approval takes minimum two years. The state govt cannot wait for two years without holding the elections. The terms of gram panchayats and zilla parishad had ended last year,” a senior official said. The term of gram panchayats ended on January 31 2024, while zilla parishads in July last year.
The state govt was worried over the delay in getting funds from the Centre to the local bodies. The Centre has not released nearly 2,000 crore to the state as it was mandatory to have elected local bodies to release the funds. If the elections get delayed, the govt would lose 1,500 crore every year, due to no elected bodies in panchayats.
Soon after the Centre’s announcement on caste census, chief minister A Revanth Reddy held a meeting with party BC leaders on Thursday and discussed about the polls. Many of the leaders said they cannot wait for the completion of caste census as the state govt was losing revenue and there has been pressure on the state to release funds to panchayats and pending bills to sarpanches.
Congress BC MLAs were also of the opinion that apart from financial issues, they cannot predict the political conditions in the rural bodies. They also okayed to go to the polls with old quota for BCs and some even suggested that the party could ensure 42% tickets to BCs in the local bodies.
During a press conference on Thursday, Revanth Reddy said there was no link between the caste census and local bodies polls in Telangana indicating it might go ahead with the elections.
TGSEC has already completed pre-poll exercises for conducting gram panchayat elections, including identification of polling stations, finalising the symbols, and even printing ballot papers in the state. It even asked the district election authorities to publish draft electoral rolls of mandal praja parishad territorial constituencies (MPTCs) and zilla parishad territorial constituencies (ZPTCs) in Feb.
Hyderabad: After dilly-dallying on holding elections to rural local bodies, the state govt has reportedly decided to go ahead with holding polls to the local bodies in July. Though Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) has already made all preparations a couple of months ago, the decision on the elections was kept on hold by the govt with the outcome of caste survey and demand from the various BC organisations that the elections should be held only after enhancing the BC reservations to 42% as promised by Congress.
Sources in the govt said the NDA govt’s decision on inclusion of caste census in general census, likely to begin this year-end, in fact bailed out the Congress govt from the issue as the caste census would resolve the problem permanently and legally. The assembly has already adopted two bills, BC reservations in local bodies and also education and employments to 42% separately, and they have been sent to the Centre for approval.
“The entire exercise of census, including caste census like collection, enumeration, compilation and approval takes minimum two years. The state govt cannot wait for two years without holding the elections. The terms of gram panchayats and zilla parishad had ended last year,” a senior official said. The term of gram panchayats ended on January 31 2024, while zilla parishads in July last year.
The state govt was worried over the delay in getting funds from the Centre to the local bodies. The Centre has not released nearly 2,000 crore to the state as it was mandatory to have elected local bodies to release the funds. If the elections get delayed, the govt would lose 1,500 crore every year, due to no elected bodies in panchayats.
Soon after the Centre’s announcement on caste census, chief minister A Revanth Reddy held a meeting with party BC leaders on Thursday and discussed about the polls. Many of the leaders said they cannot wait for the completion of caste census as the state govt was losing revenue and there has been pressure on the state to release funds to panchayats and pending bills to sarpanches.
Congress BC MLAs were also of the opinion that apart from financial issues, they cannot predict the political conditions in the rural bodies. They also okayed to go to the polls with old quota for BCs and some even suggested that the party could ensure 42% tickets to BCs in the local bodies.
During a press conference on Thursday, Revanth Reddy said there was no link between the caste census and local bodies polls in Telangana indicating it might go ahead with the elections.
TGSEC has already completed pre-poll exercises for conducting gram panchayat elections, including identification of polling stations, finalising the symbols, and even printing ballot papers in the state. It even asked the district election authorities to publish draft electoral rolls of mandal praja parishad territorial constituencies (MPTCs) and zilla parishad territorial constituencies (ZPTCs) in Feb.