PIONEER NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
The process of elections in the three tier Panchayat Raj bodies in 12 districts (barring Haridwar) of the State commenced with filing of the nomination papers on Wednesday.
The election to elect 66,418 representatives in village, block and district Panchayats will be held in two phases. The voting for the first phase will be on July 24 while for the second phase will be on July 28.
The process of nomination paper filing will end on July 05 at 4 PM. The scrutiny of the nomination papers will be done from July 07 to July 09 while the candidates can withdraw their nomination papers from 8.00 AM to 3.00 PM on July 10 and 11. The symbols will be allotted on July 14 and July 18 for the first and second phase respectively. The voting for the first and second phase will be held from 8 AM to 5 PM on July 24 and 28 respectively.
The counting of the votes will commence at 8.00 AM on July 31 for both the phases and the process will continue till the official declaration of the results.
The State Election Commission (SEC) will hold elections in 89 blocks of 12 districts of the State barring Haridwar. A total of 47,77,072 ( 23,10,996 female, 24,65,702 male) voters will exercise their franchise in the elections.
The voters will elect 55,587 village Panchayat members, 7,499 village Pradhans, 2,974 members of block Panchayat and 358 members of the district Panchayat. The elected members of block Panchayats will then elect block pramukhs while the elected district Panchayat members will elect district Panchayat presidents in the 12 districts.
The SEC will set up a total of 8,276 polling stations and 10,529 polling booths for the Panchayat elections. The commission will take services of 95,909 employees, 3,342 light vehicles and 2,278 heavy vehicles for the smooth conduction of the Panchayat polls in the State. The commission will also deploy 55 general observers and 12 reserved observers in the elections. The maximum expenditure limit for member village Panchayat is Rs 10,000 while it is Rs 75,000 each for Pradhan and member block Panchayat and Rs 2,00,000 for member district Panchayat.
