Dehradun: Elections for Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats of the state will be held only after the first phase of Lok Sabha elections. Under the order of the High Court, the government has to form new boards in all the bodies by June 2, for which elections will have to be held during the Lok Sabha elections.
At the same time, the government is preparing to bring a bill to amend the Municipal Corporation and Municipality Act to implement OBC reservation in local bodies. Elections for 97 municipal bodies in the state were held in the year 2018, whose five-year tenure ended on December 1 last year. From December 2, all the bodies were handed over to the administrators.
The government has to conduct the elections before June 2, but soon the code of conduct for Lok Sabha elections will be implemented across the country. In such a situation, there may be technical difficulties in conducting civic elections during this election. To deal with this problem, the government can take special permission from the Election Commission.
So that, after the Lok Sabha elections in Uttarakhand in the first phase, the code of conduct for civic elections can also be implemented. Notification for civic elections may be issued in the last week of April, after which elections will be held in May.
Bill to amend the Act
Under the Municipal Corporation and Municipality Act, till now there is a provision of maximum 14 percent OBC reservation in all the bodies, but in the report of the single-member dedicated commission, the reservation in many bodies has gone below 14, while in many bodies it has gone well above 14. Therefore, to implement this reservation, there is a need to amend the Municipal Corporation and Municipality Act. Now the government is preparing to bring a bill for this. After the bill is introduced, elections will be conducted by giving reservation on this basis.
