Telangana High Court issues notices to govt for not conducting local bodies polls

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court's division bench, headed by Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Tukaramji on Friday issued notices to the Chief Election Commissioner, Chief Electoral Officer, State Election Commission and the Commissioner, Panchayati Raj department, directing them to respond to notices by April 20, furnishing reasons for not holding elections to local bodies as the last polls were held in 2019.

M Rangiah, counsel for the petitioner, contended that due to non-conduct of elections to the local bodies across the State, developmental and welfare activities in various villages have come to a grinding halt, thereby depriving the citizens of development.

The bench was adjudicating the plea filed by Rapolu Bhaskar, advocate of Hyderabad seeking a direction to the CEO, State Election Commission, to conduct elections to the zilla parishads, mandal parishads and gram panchayats in the State---220 sarpanches, 94 MPTCs, four ZPTCs, 5,364 ward members and 344 deputy sarpanches, which have been kept vacant since years, and also to conduct the local bodies elections in Telangana. The petitioner said non-conduct of elections to the local bodies is depriving people of welfare activities in the concerned villages. Hearing in the case was adjourned to April 20.