Thursday, 12 December 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The ordinance on OBC reservation in urban local bodies ( ULB) elections approved by the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday is based on the findings of the dedicated one member commission set up by the State government on the recommendation of the Supreme Court ( SC). The commission headed by Justice ( retd) B S Verma in its report is based on the census of 2011.
On the basis of the ordinance and the report of the commission, the Urban Development department will finalize the reservation in the ULBs of the State.
The commission is learnt to have reserved 30 posts of Chairperson/ Mayors in the ULBs of the State. There are 11 municipal corporations ( Dehradun, Haridwar, Roorkee, Rishikesh, Srinagar, Kotdwar, Haldwani, Rudrapur, Kashipur, Almora and Pithoragarh ) in Uttarakhand. The commission has recommended that two posts of Mayors out of 11 municipal corporations should be reserved for OBCs.
It is likely that eight positions of Mayors in the State will be reserved for general category candidates and one for scheduled caste candidates. Similarly, out of 45 municipal councils in the State, 25 posts of Chairperson will be reserved for general category candidates, 13 for OBCs, six for SCs and one for ST. There are 46 nagar panchayats in the State and it is likely that 24 posts of Chairperson will be reserved for general category candidates, 15 for OBC candidates, six for SC and one for ST.
The commission has based its report on the census data of 2011. As per the census data there are 17.52 per cent OBCs in the municipal corporations of the State. The population of OBCs is 38.83 per cent in the Nagar Panchayats of the State while there is 28.78 per cent OBC population in the municipal councils in the State.
The five year long tenure of the ULBs in the State had ended in December 2023 after which administrators were appointed in the ULBs. It is interesting to note that the State government had assured the High Court that the elections of the ULBs in Uttarakhand will be held before December 25. There are 102 ULBs in the State and the elections for 99 ULBs (barring Kedarnath, Badrinath and Gangotri nagar panchayats) will be held.
