Reservation for Urban Bodies’ polls ends
   Date :19-Sep-2019

 
Staff Reporter :
 
RAIPUR
 
The process of reservation was done for election of Mayor in 13 Municipal Corporations and Presidents in 43 Municipal Councils and 109 Nagar Panchayats for the forthcoming Urban Bodies’ Election – 2019 
 
Amidst allegations of carrying out reservation process without completing caste census, the process of reservation for election of Mayor in 13 Municipal Corporations and Presidents in 43 Municipal Councils and 109 Nagar Panchayats for the forthcoming Urban Bodies’ Election – 2019, was completed on Wednesday. During the hectic political upheaval, the process was completed at Shahid Smarak Bhawan. As per scheduled, the reservation process for Municipal Corporations commenced at 12 noon. Of the 13 Municipal Corporations, two has been reserved for Scheduled Caste, of which and one is reserved for SC (Woman). Similarly, one has been reserved for Scheduled Tribe while three have been reserved for Other Backward Classes which includes one for OBC (Woman).
 
Remaining 7 seats have been left unreserved which include 2 General (Woman) seats. According to the reservation process for Municipal Corporations, Bhilai-Charoda has been reserved for Scheduled Caste; Raigarh for SC (Woman); Ambikapur for Scheduled Tribe; Dhamtari for OBC, Rajnandgaon for OBC (Woman), Korba for OBC, Raipur as General, Jagdalpur (General Woman), Bilaspur (General), Bhilai (General), Chirmiri (General-Woman); Durg (General) and Birgaon (General). Similarly, reservation process has been completed for 43 Municipal Councils also, wherein, six have been reserved for Scheduled Caste including two SC (Woman) seats, five Scheduled Tribe including two ST (Woman) and 11 seats for Other Backward Class, including four seats for OBC (Woman). Remaining 21 have been left unreserved which include six General (Woman) seats.
 
Accordingly, Dongargarh, Janjgir, Akaltara, Ratanpur, Sarangarh has been reserved for Scheduled Caste while Bagbahara and Sarangarh Municipal Councils have been reserved for SC (Woman). Similarly, Bijapur, Jashpur and Balramupur have been reserved for Scheduled Tribe while Narayanpur and Dantewada have been reserved for Scheduled Tribe (Women). Under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category for Municipal Councils, Khairagarh, Arang, Takhatpur, Shivpur Charcha, Saraipali and Ahiwara have been reserved for OBC while Badi Bacheli, Bhatapara, Kondagaon and Deepka have been reserved for OBC (Women). Under the unreserved quota of Municipal Councils, Kirandul, Sukma, Kanker, Kawardha, Jamul, Kumhari, Dalli Rajhara, Balod, Mahasamund, Gobranawapara, Gariaband, Balodabazar, Champa, Katghora, Surajpur, Manendragarh have been left out for general category with Bemetara, Tilda, Kharsia, Sakti and Baikunthpur has been reserved for General (Woman). Similarly, as per the reservation process for 109 Nagar Panchayats, 33 nagar panchayats have been reserved for General category while 17 have been reserved for General (Women) category.
 
Similarly, nine nagar panchayats have been reserved for Scheduled Caste and four for SC (Woman), 13 nagar panchayats for Scheduled Tribe and six for ST (Women) while 18 nagar panchayats were reserved for Other Backward Class and nine nagar panchayats reserved for OBC (Woman). BJP MP from Raipur Sunil Soni while commenting on the reservation process said the people are fed-up with the state government and that the BJP is inching towards landslide victory in Urban Bodies’ Election scheduled later this year.
 
Presently, of the 13 Municipal Corporations, BJP is in power in 10 while in three Congress is in power. While the reservation process was underway, BJP leaders including Rikesh Sen from Bhilai and Gaurishankar Srivas from Raipur alleged that the process has been conducted under government pressure. Along with other party workers they also created ruckus infront of the officials. They alleged that caste census has not been carried out since 1980 and carrying out reservation process for urban bodies without proper caste census is completely incorrect. Meanwhile, chairing the reservation process, Urban Administration and Development Department Deputy Secretary R Ekka said he’s yet to receive any written objection and if any written complaint is received action will be taken as per norms. He further added that census survey is carried out every 10 years and the reservation process has also been carried on the basis of 2011 census.