SEC readying ballot boxes for Gram Panchayats polls

​Hyderabad: The Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) is readying ballot boxes necessary for conducting the polls for Gram Panchayats to be held in June or July. 

Elections to the GPs would be held through the ballot papers and as many as 1.13 lakh ballot boxes are required. The Election Commission of India has given 60,000 ballot boxes and the SEC has procured rest of the boxes from Karnataka and Maharashtra. 

A senior official of the TSEC told The Hans India that the ballot boxes have arrived from the other states and they have been distributed to the districts. The SEC is ready in all aspects to conduct the polls, he said. 

The official said that the elections to the GPs would be held through the ballot papers as it would not be possible to provide Electronic Voting Machines to the polling booths. He said that there are about 1.13 lakh wards in the GPs and each ward would be provided with one ballot box. 

The election officials would give two ballot papers to the voters of each ward, one for the sarpanch and the other for ward member with different colours. Both ballot papers would be put in one box. 

The district collectors who have received the ballot boxes have taken up their examination and repairs for those which have been damaged. They would be made foolproof for the use in the elections. 

The SEC is hoping to conduct the elections to the GPs in June or July and it is waiting for the green signal from the government. 

The government is yet to issue the gazette notification of the new Panchayat Raj Act and the list of the new Gram Panchayats being created under the new Act.  The Government has proposed 3,965 new panchayats over and above the existing 8,686 and TSEC is getting ready to conduct elections to the new ones also. 

The process for conducting the elections would begin in the new GPs as soon as the government issues the list.  The government has to determine the reservation of sarpanch posts. The existing reservations would change as the new panchayats would be added to the existing ones.  

The SEC conducted a meeting with the representatives of the political parties recently and informed them about the steps being taken for the conduct of the elections. The issue of ballot boxes was also discussed in the meeting. At the district level the collectors have conducted meetings with leaders of political parties.