The district administration has geared up to conduct elections to all the 10 Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) functioning at taluk centres of Athani, Bailhongal, Belagavi, Chikkodi, Gokak, Hukkeri, Khanapur, Raibag, Ramdurg and Savadatti in the district and will issue a notification in this regard on Friday.
Deputy Commissioner N. Jayaram said here on Thursday that the nomination process would commence from December 22 (Thursday) and would be accepted till December 29 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Papers would be taken for scrutiny on December 30, and the last date for withdrawal is January 2, 2017. In the event of a contest, polling would be held on January 12 (re-polling on January 13 if necessitated). Counting would be done on January 14.
Nominations could be filed with the Tahsildar’s office. The nomination fee has been fixed at Rs.50 for general and Rs.25 for those candidates coming under various reserved categories.
Each of the 10 APMCs consists of 14 constituencies, including 11 of ‘agriculture’ and the remaining three of traders. Of the 11 agriculture constituencies, five are kept open for general category, one each reserved for SC, ST, BC-A and BC-B, and two for women candidates. The final voter rolls were published on May 19 and Tahsildars had been advised to include the names of fresh voters from June to November end.
Voters having multiple registrations in four different types of constituencies were eligible to cast their votes in each of them. Accordingly, the indelible ink would be applied to middle finger in respect of an ‘agriculturist’, fore inger for ‘trader’, ring finger for member of ‘Marketing Co-operative Society’ and thumb for member of ‘Agriculture Co-operative Processing Society’.
INFO BOX:
•Though Model Code of Conduct is not applicable to APMC elections, holding of political activities like meeting and canvassing has been banned within APMC yards.
•Total number of voters in 10 APMCs – 11,23,161 (women 1,42,462; men 11,23,161), total polling stations – 1,700.
•Talukwise APMC voters and polling stations into bracket: Belagavi – 92,756 (140), Hukkeri – 88,006 (145), Khanapur – 58,564 (103), Bailhongal -86,854 (149), Savadatti – 95,550 (145), Ramdurg – 83,699 (123), Gokak – 1,51,459 (211), Chikkodi – 1,99,911 (288), Raibag – 93,679 (143) and Athani – 1,72,683 (253).
