© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
In the first official confirmation that municipal elections are unlikely to be held any time soon in Jammu and Kashmir, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha Tuesday said that the polls to urban local bodies (ULBs) would be held after delimitation, as well as after the process to reserve seats for Other Backward Classes was completed.
While the term of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation ended on November 5, the Jammu civic body completed its five-year tenure on Tuesday. Other municipal bodies across the Union Territory will finish their tenure by the end of this month.
The Assembly polls in J&K are already delayed, and were last held in 2014. The government is yet to initiate the process to hold them, despite the delimitation process, the official reason for the delay, being over.
Political parties have been demanding resumption of electoral activities in J&K, which has now been under President’s Rule since its government was dissolved in 2018.
The LG was speaking at an event to felicitate councillors of the Jammu Municipal Corporation at the end of their five-year term. Calling the civic bodies a symbol of “the aspirations of citizens” in the 21st century, Sinha said: “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Urban Local Bodies of J&K are provided with greater financial resources for strong and accountable self-government and to ensure holistic ecosystem for last-mile access to services.”
He then went on to commend all the councillors for their work, including during Covid, and said: “The elections for urban local bodies would be held after completion of the delimitation exercise of wards and reservation of wards for Other Backward Classes.”
The last ULB and panchayat elections in J&K were held between October and December 2018, which too were after a long delay.
There has been speculation that the civic elections might be delayed as, after the scrapping of special status of J&K in 2019, all provisions of the Constitution are applicable to its ULBs, including the provision of reservation for OBCs.
A senior official said the authorities are “obliged to prepare a list of socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs), which can be acted upon for providing reservation to OBCs, including in election to local governments”.
The Supreme Court has laid down triple conditions for providing this reservation, including setting up of a dedicated commission to collect empirical data on the OBC population, specifying the proportion of reservation and ensuring that the cumulative share of reserved seats does not breach 50% of the total seats.
While a G D Sharma Commission constituted by the J&K government has made its recommendations regarding OBCs, these are awaiting implementation. Even after the government takes a call on OBC reservation, it has to be followed by identification of the municipal constituencies to be reserved. This is sure to take time, the official pointed out.
According to officials, another issue in the way of holding polls is a communication from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer suggesting transfer of the mandate to conduct the municipal electoral processes to the State Election Commission (SEC), in accordance with constitutional provisions.
In J&K at present, the CEO is the authority to hold ULB elections in addition to Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, while the SEC — headed by a state election commissioner — is mandated to conduct elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions.
The Congress has taken up this issue as well as highlighted discrepancies in the reservation of municipal wards for SC/STs and women, which is done on the basis of rotation. During the previous three elections, the same wards have remained reserved, the Congress has said.
The LG’s statement on Tuesday adds a new dimension to the delay, of delimitation of wards, a process that can’t be completed in a hurry.
