Monday, 07 OCTOBER 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
With the select committee of Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha on Other Backward Castes (OBC) reservation recommending holding of the elections of urban local bodies on the basis of the census of 2011, the path is now clear for holding the elections in 102 urban local bodies (ULB) of the State. In the meeting of the select committee held in Vidhan Sabha on Saturday, the members agreed that the one month tenure of the committee should be extended as the issue of OBC reservation requires intensive and in-depth discussion. The chairman of the committee and parliamentary affairs minister Premchand Agarwal said that the committee has recommended that the ULB elections can be held on the basis of the 2011 census. He said that the notification of the ULB elections will be released till November 10 and the process of the elections will be completed before December 25.
It is pertinent to mention that the State government had submitted an affidavit in Uttarakhand High Court- which was hearing a public interest litigation on the issue -mentioning its resolve to complete the process of ULB election before December 25 this year.
The five year term of the elected boards in all the ULBs of the State ended on December 1, 2023. Since the State government could not conduct the elections last year due to the pending report of the Supreme Court constituted one-member dedicated commission on OBC reservation in the ULBs, it deployed administrators in all the bodies by an order dated November 30, 2023. This tenure of the administrators was further extended to a period of three months on June 2, 2024. With the end of this extension on August 31 the government again extended the tenure of the administrators till the constitution of new boards by elections.
The government intended to give constitutional status to the report of dedicated commission on OBC reservation by the passage of the Uttarakhand (Uttar Pradesh Municipal corporation 1959) Amendment Bill 2024 in the recent Monsoon session of the State assembly at Bharadisain, Gairsain. However some of the MLAs of ruling party led by Vikasnagar MLA Munna Singh Chauhan raised objections to the recommendations of the one member commission on OBC reservations and demanded sending the bill to the select committee for further scrutiny and discussion following which the speaker Ritu Bhushan Khanduri sent the bill to the select committee. The speaker directed the select committee to submit its report before October 9. This created a situation of constitutional logjam and confusion over the holding of the ULB elections.
The select committee however has now cleared the logjam by recommending that the ULB elections can be held on the basis of the census of 2011.
It is pertinent to mention here that there are 102 ULBs in the State and the elections for 99 ULBs (barring Kedarnath, Badrinath and Gangotri Nagar Panchayats) will be held. The term of the ULBs in the State had ended in December 2023 after which administrators were appointed in the ULBs.
