Local Bodies Elections in Andhra Pradesh: Govt Submits Reservation Details to SEC

Hyderabad: Decks have been cleared for the local bodies' election as the State government, on Monday, submitted the seats reserved for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes, including women, to the State Election Commission (SEC). It is expected that the notification for the elections would be issued in day or two.

As soon as the district collectors sent their reports on BCs reservations to the Secretariat, the government reviewed them before submitting the details to the SEC. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy himself told to his Cabinet colleagues, who met him on Monday that the local bodies' election notification would come soon and asked them to be ready for it.

As per the details, the government made reservations for SCs and STs by taking the State as unit. But, it took district as unit in case of BCs reservations. Elections would be held to 21,590 Panchayats in the State and Chittoor stood first in highest Panchayats with 1,366 Panchayats followed by Mahbubnagar with 1331 Panchayats.

Ranga Reddy district stood in last place with 690 Panchayats and Nizamabad in last but one place with 718 Panchayats. A total of 10,795 Panchayats among all categories have been reserved for women and about 1,218 Panchayats located in scheduled areas and other areas have been reserved for STs. Around 6,926 Panchayats were reserved for BCs and 3,958 Panchayats were given to STs.

Govt response sought on BC quota Hyderabad: The PIL bench of the AP High Court comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sen Gupta and Justice G Rohini on Monday granted two weeks time to the government to respond to a batch of writ petitions questioning the Government Order made on June 26, with regards to reservation to Backward Classes in the ensuing elections to the Panchayat Raj bodies in the State.