CM announces elections to ULBs, BDCs by December

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 30: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today announced holding of elections to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and Block Development Councils (BDCs) and directed the concerned department to set the process into motion, complete formalities and gold the polls by December this year i.e. within the next three months.
This would be the first ever election to the BDC while polls to ULBs would be held nearly after three years as they were due in January 2010.
Official sources said Omar today directed Rural Development and Housing and Urban Development Departments to set the process for holding elections to BDCs and ULBs into motion.
The Chief Minister has asked the two Departments to hold the elections by December this year.
While the Rural Development Department has to ask the State Election Department to hold elections to BDCs, which are to be elected by Sarpanches and Panches, the Housing and Urban Development Departments has to issue an order to the Election Department on holding polls to the ULBs.
The Government had been drawing flak from various quarters for delay in the elections to ULBs and BDCs, which had resulted into delay in empowerment of Municipalities and Panchayats.
Elections to ULBs were due in January-February 2010 as all ULBs had ceased to exist in first week of March 2010. The ULBs were elected in January-February 2005 after a gap of 26 years while elections to Panchayats were held last year after nearly four decades. However, elections to the BDCs would be held in the State for the first time as second tier of the Panchayats.
There were a total of 143 BDCs across the State including 77 in Kashmir region (Ladakh included) and 66 in Jammu region.
According to official sources, the election to BDCs could be held in October-November well before the ULB polls as voter revision for them had recently been completed by the Election Department.
After the voter revision, a total of 33,849 electorates had been finalized. While 15,726 voters (1966 Sarpanches and 13,760 Panches) would elect chairpersons to 66 BDCs in Jammu region, 18,123 electorates (2164 Sarpanches and 15,959 Panches) would elect chairpersons to 77 BDCs in Kashmir region including Ladakh.
The BDC chairpersons would be members of District Development Boards (DDBs) of their respective districts.
The Block Development Officers (BDOs) would be Returning Officers (ROs) of their blocks for the elections to BDCs. The Sarpanches and Panches would elect chairperson of their block. Any person can contest the election of chairperson provided that he is a resident of that block and had attained the age of election. The vice chairperson of the BDC would be elected through consensus from among the Sarpanches and Panches.
The ballot boxes would be used for holding election to the chairpersons.
Sources said the Election Department has also taken up the issue of holding elections for four seats of MLCs from Panchayat quota shortly as the electoral college for them was also same as that of the BDCs i.e. Sarpanches and Panches.
The Sarpanches and Panches would elect two MLCs each from Jammu and Kashmir regions. The election was pending since the Panchayats were constituted. Four seats of MLCs in the Legislative Council were vacant for past nearly four decades as full elections to Panchayats were held last year after 1974.
On elections to ULBs, sources said the voter revision for them would start only after delimitation of Wards in Jammu and Srinagar Municipal Corporations, Councils and Committees was completed. The delimitation and voter revision could take about two and a half months and the elections could be held in November or December, sources said, adding since the ULBs elections were mainly held in towns, there would be no major impact of snow even if they were extended to the end of December.
The elections to ULBs were hanging fire for past about two and a half years now as all Municipal bodies had ceased to exist in March 2010. Elections to the ULBs were held in January-February 2005 after a gap of about 26 years as they had last been held in 1979. The Municipalities were formed in first week of March in 2005 and they completed their five years term in March 2010. Since then, the elections hadn’t been held to Municipal bodies.
During last elections held to the Municipalities, there were 14.34 lakh voters. With elections now being held after more than seven years, the number of electorates was expected to go up significantly especially with the inclusion of 16 more Municipalities for holding elections and inclusion of new voters, who had attained the age of 18 during past seven and a half years. All eligible voters would be included during revision of voter lists.
The Central funds worth several crores had been blocked due to delay in holding of elections to the ULBs, sources said, adding though the funds are non-lapsable, they would be granted by the Centre to the State only when elections were held to the Municipalities.

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