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No civic polls in Hyderabad, Rajahmundry in March

The Andhra Pradesh government has notified the reservations of posts of municipal chairmen/ mayors in different municipalities/ municipal corporations for the backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and women, besides open categories, as a prelude to the conduct of municipal elections in March this year.

Releasing the list of reserved civic bodies at a media conference in Hyderabad at the weekend, Municipal Administration Minister N Mohammed Farook said that the reservations have been effected for the various categories on the basis of the 1991 census.

Reiterating that the state government was keen to conduct the civic polls all over the state in March, the minister, however, made it clear that the elections to the municipal corporations of Hyderabad and Rajahmundry would not be held along with the other civic polls in view of the "pending litigation" with regard to these two corporations.

He said that the government has communicated to the state Election Commission its willingness for the conduct of civic elections in as many as 106 municipalities and five municipal corporations (Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntur, Kurnool and Warangal) on schedule on the expiry of the term of their elected bodies in March 2000.

Earlier, briefing newsmen after a cabinet meeting, Revenue Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju said that the cabinet approved the promulgation of an ordinance by the state governor for amending the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act for extending the term of the special officer for a further term of 18 months. He said that the MCH polls cannot be held along with other civic polls in view of the pendency of the court case.

Elections to the MCH have been deferred for the last nine years, following the completion of the term of the elected body in March 1991. The MCH polls were held last in 1986 during the tenure of N T Rama Rao. The successive governments and chief ministers have been lukewarm to the need for the conduct of MCH polls.

Panchayat Raj Minister A Madhava Reddy told newsmen that the state cabinet also approved the promulgation of an ordinance for amending the AP Mandal Parishad and Zilla Parishad Act providing for the appointment of special officers to manage their affairs for a period of six months on the completion of the term of their elected bodies in March 2000.

Madhava Reddy explained that it became inevitable to appoint the special officers till the conduct of the next elections to the panchayat raj bodies in view of the constitutional amendment for the abolition of mandal parishad territorial constituencies and zilla parishad territorial constituencies pending in Parliament.

He said that all the opposition parties wanted these two superfluous posts to be abolished since they were not needed under the three-tier panchayat raj system comprising the gram panchayat at the lower level, mandal parishad at the intermediate level and zilla parishad at the district level.

Consequently, the state government decided to conduct the polls to gram panchayats, mandal parishads and zilla parishads after the MPTCs and ZPTCs were abolished.

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