The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Government sat over SEC proposal

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Friday, Sep 02, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Government sat over SEC proposal

N.J. Nair

Failure to clear proposal led to delay in delimitation of wards

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: : The Government's delay in clearing the State Election Commission's proposal to fix the strength of wards has been pointed out as one of the main reasons for delaying the delimitation process.

According to Local Administration Department sources, the commission's first proposal for strength fixation in each ward according to the census figures of 2001 was presented to the Government on March 28, 2004, but the proposal was cleared only on March 31, 2005.

The commission mooted the proposal in advance to secure sufficient time to complete the delimitation process without giving room for complaints, but it took a year for the Government to issue the orders and the commission was forced to rush through the entire process, sources said.

The amendment to the Panchayati Raj and Municipalities Acts to facilitate the constitution of the commission was delayed and the Local Administration Ministry's proposals for revising the voters' list and the formation of a three-member commission later were rejected by the Government.

On realising that the delimitation procedures could not be completed before September, the Local Administration Ministry had, during the tenure of A.K.Antony, mooted a proposal to revise the voters' list on the basis of the latest census report. This would have made the process easy since each local body would need to assess the population strength of each ward and make alterations after fixing the minimum and maximum strength.

But this proposal was subsequently rejected by the Cabinet, which decided to go ahead with a thorough delimitation process. The Cabinet decided to increase the minimum number of wards in a grama panchayat and block panchayat from 10 to 12 and the maximum was put at 22. The number of wards in a district panchayat was fixed at 16 and 32, 22 and 52 in a municipality and 52 and 100 in a corporation as per the latest census report.

After deciding to delimit the wards, the Government did not expedite the ancillary processes to complete the procedures within the stipulated time. It took almost two months for the Government to move an amendment in the Assembly for facilitating the formation of the commission.

The Local Administration Ministry suggested that the commission be headed by State Election Commissioner N.Mohandas and have on it the Panchayat and Municipal directors as members.

This proposal was rejected and the Government formed the commission with five members. Other than Mr.Mohandas, the commission initially had the Local Administration and Urban Secretary Kamal Kutty, K.K.Vijayakumar, C.V.Anandabose and E.K.Bharat Bhushan as members. Later, when Mr. Bose proceeded out of the State on another assignment, K.J.Mathew was posted in his place.

Except Mr.Kamalkutty and Mr.Mathew, other members could attend the commission sittings only in turns due to various official engagements. This has been cited as one of the reasons for the delay.

Union Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Sanakar Iyer's announcement that the last instalment of Central assistance of Rs.54 crores would be given only to the newly elected committees that assume office on October 2 also prompted the Government to complete the proceedings in haste, sources said.

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