The Kurnool city has not had a Mayor for the past 10 years. With the State Election Commission gearing up for local body elections, expected soon after a government is formed in the State, the city is looking to fill the vacant position soon.
As of now, Collector S. Satyanarayana has been acting as the special officer of the corporation.
The State Election Commission (SEC) has directed the Kurnool Municipal Corporation (KMC) to make voter rolls available soon. The rolls are set to be published in the first week of May, followed by finalisation of reservation of wards.
Municipal Commissioner P. Prasanti told The Hindu that 75% of the work on voter rolls had been finished. Responding to a question about inexperienced KMC staff that have not seen a local body election in years, she said more than 90% of the staff worked in the recent general elections and gained enough exposure to be able to handle the local elections. “With the help of revenue and police, we are confident we can perform well,” said Ms.Prasanti.
Talking about reservation, the Municipal Commissioner said they had already made voter rolls for 2017 along with the proposed reservation and forwarded it to the SEC.
“The same reservation may continue this year too,” she said.
Growing population
The KMC covers almost three Assembly constituencies – Kurnool city, and parts of Panyam and Kodumur – and has been split into 51 wards, with 268 polling stations. Of the 5.5 lakh population, about 4.10 lakh people would be participating in the polling process. In July 2017, the population was 2.98 lakh, but this year it is expected to increase more than a lakh because three new villages were recently zoned into the corporation limits.
Since the formation of the Kurnool Municipality in the late ’90s, the city has seen only three Mayors. The first Mayor of the city was Bangi Anantaiah, from the TDP. Later, two Congress leaders held the post – L.Feroz Begum and Raghuram Reddy.
