Former Member of Parliament M. Ramadass has urged the government to immediately set in motion the process to hold elections to local bodies in the Union Territory. In a statement, he said that the process of holding polls had been unjustifiably dragged on for over eight years.
Mr. Ramadass pointed out that Puducherry was perhaps the only place in the country where the local bodies have been stifled without elected representatives – first for 38 years from 1968 to 2006 and later for eight years from 2011 to 2019.
“By keeping the local bodies in back burner without any valid reason, the Congress leaders here have been willingly dishonouring their own charismatic leader and the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who catalysed and rejuvenated local body institutions through 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution,” he said.
The Madras High Court had directed the Government of Puducherry to hold the poll by June 2015. However, the Puducherry government filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court in 2018 and argued that it was not in a position to hold the poll since the delimitation process remains incomplete in the absence of Backward Classes data required for their reservation in local bodies.
Disagreeing with this contention, the apex court gave an ultimatum to the government to complete the process of delimitation in four weeks and conduct the elections thereafter (by July 2018) without any further delay.
The court had warned the government of serious consequences if it did not comply with the order. However, the government did not bother but dilly dallied the matter requiring more time although the detailed delimitation was completed in January 2016 itself.
Mr. Ramadass said that the delimitation of wards is by and large satisfactory and reservation of seats in local bodies has been ensured as per Constitutional provisions.
As a first step, the government should appoint a non-political and non-partisan person as the State Election Commissioner since the post has been lying vacant.
The constitution of the Commission with the appointment of the Commissioner and the Secretary should be followed by the announcement of the schedule of election. “By delaying action on this front the government would be depriving the people of their democratic rights, preventing the devolution of Central funds to local bodies, denying development opportunities besides attracting contempt proceedings of the Supreme Court,” Mr. Ramadass said.
On the other hand, by ordering immediate elections to local bodies, the government would facilitate decentralised planning, solution to area-based problems, mitigation of poverty, clean and healthy Puducherry, quicker and productive implementation of State and Central schemes, flow of financial resources from the Centre and percolation of political rights to the grass-roots level, he added.
