Puducherry, June 23(BPNS)
The Union Territory of Puducherry will be conducting local body polls after a gap of 10 years. The local body elections were held last in 2006 which was after a gap of 38 years and following an order from the Madras High Court. The tenure of that civic body election which was held for electing 1138 representatives which include 33% women and 16% Dalits came to a close in 2011.
The Puducherry state election commission has now completed the delimitation exercise of the wards in the local bodies and has commenced preparations to hold the local body polls following an order from the Supreme Court of India.
The Supreme Court of India has in its order dated March 5, 2021, directed the Puducherry government and the commission to complete the delimitation exercise within two months from the date of the order. It has also directed the commission and the UT government to hold elections to the local bodies four months after the delimitation exercise is completed.
The commission has published ward-wise draft electoral rolls of the municipalities and commune panchayaths on Monday and has proposed to publish the final electoral roll for the panchayath elections on June 28.2021.
Puducherry state election commissioner, Roy P Thomas told reporters,” The voters are requested to approach the concerned electoral officers for addition or deletion of their names from the electoral rolls and these rolls are presently prepared with the qualifying date as of January 1, 2021”.
The Commission has already issued a notification on completion of the delimitation exercise and on the appointment of district electoral officers, regional electoral officers, returning officers, and assistant returning officers.
The Puducherry state election commission is proposed to hold meetings with representatives of national political parties –both registered and recognized as well as meeting with representatives of regional political parties( both registered and unrecognized).
Roy P Thomas while speaking to reporters said,” These meetings are to be held to elicit the views of the representatives of these political parties and their suggestions to hold the civic body polls in a free and fair manner”.
The commission has earlier convened a meeting of the officials as to the Covid-19 protocols to be followed while conducting the local body elections.
