Reserved seats through draw of lots

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 8. The State Election Commission has decided to determine reserved constituencies (wards) in panchayats for the forthcoming elections through draw of lots.

The State Election Commissioner, Mr. M. S. Joseph, said here today that the process of determining the reserved constituencies in village panchayats would begin on April 27. District Collectors would be in charge of drawing the lots on specified dates at specified venues.

The Commissioner said this was the first time that the reserved constituencies were being determined through draw of lots. Last time, constituencies were reserved on the basis of population.

As per the recent amendments to the Panchayat Raj and Municipalities Act, constituencies are now to be selected by rotation. Accordingly, the constituencies that are currently reserved would be excluded from the draw. However, as the boundaries of some of the reserved constituencies have changed on delimitation, new constituencies in which more than 50 per cent of the population or households of the old reserved constituency are located would be the ones to be excluded from the draw.

Mr. Joseph said that of the 17,099 constituencies in the municipal and panchayat areas, 6,229 were reserved for women, 1,906 for Scheduled Castes and 191 for Scheduled Tribes. The total number of panchayats now stood at 991 following the bifurcation of some panchayats and inclusion of some in municipal areas. There were 152 block panchayats and 14 district panchayats as before. The number of municipal corporations increased to five with the upgrading of Kollam and Thrissur municipalities and the number of municipalities dropped to 53.

There were 13,259 wards in the village panchayats. Of these, 4,330 were reserved for women, 1,066 for Scheduled Castes and 119 for Scheduled Tribes.

He said the voters' list for the coming elections would be finalised in a few days. The election would be held in September. The dates would be decided in May or June.

He said the Commission had notified the authority to preside over meetings of local bodies that are convened to consider no- confidence motions, as per the amended law. The block panchayat secretary would be the designated authority to preside over meetings of panchayats when they are considering no-confidence motions. The district panchayat secretary would preside over such meetings in block panchayats. The local Collector would be the authority to preside over meetings of district panchayats and municipal corporations when they consider non-confidence motions. The joint director of municipalities would preside over the meeting of municipal councils on such occasions.

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Section  : Regional
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