Commission revises entire revision schedule
Final rolls now to be published on Jan 15
The State Election Commission (SEC) has detected huge gaps between number of electorates in the Assembly rolls vis-à-vis Panchayat rolls and has therefore extended the timeline for ongoing revision of electoral rolls with final publication now fixed for January 15, 2025.
There have been reports that the Government could hold Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir in March-April next year subject to submission of report on percentage of reservations to be given to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Panchayat and Municipal elections by the OBC Commission whose extended term is expiring on December 31, 2024.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the SEC headed by retired senior bureaucrat BR Sharma has found huge gaps between number of voters in the Assembly rolls vis-à-vis Panchayat rolls during analysis of the data.
“The analysis by the Commission has revealed that progress of many blocks needs improvement in view of the gaps,” the sources said.
Due to this, the Commission has extended date for filing the claims and objections in the Panchayat electoral rolls up to December 20, 2024 and final publication of electoral rolls for the Panchayats from January 6 to January 15, 2025.
Special camps at the polling booth locations now will be held on December 14 and 15 while claims and objections will be disposed of by the EROs on December 30.
The SEC has directed the Panchayat Election Booth Officers to visit house to house for survey for filing the forms of left out voters and new voters. It has also asked for holding special camps at Panch Ward level.
The Municipalities, Panchayats and Block Development Councils (BDCs) are now without elected members for nearly one year. While term of the Municipalities ended in October-November last year, the Panchayats completed their tenure on January 9 this year. Since term of the BDCs was co-terminus with the Panchayats, they too ceased to exist when five-year tenure of the Panchayats ended.
However, the District Development Councils whose elections were held for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir in December 2020 have their term till January 2026.
The last Panchayat and Municipal elections were held from September to November 2018. The Panchayat polls were held on a non-party basis while Municipal elections were conducted on party basis.
A total of 27,281 Panchs (Panchayat members) and Sarpanchs (Village Headmen) were elected in the 2018 elections.
The OBC Commission whose report will lead to conduct of Panchayat and Municipal elections in Jammu and Kashmir was set up on June 11 while the Chairman and Members were nominated on July 31 this year.
Sources said percentage in reservation to OBCs in the rural and urban local bodies has to be proportionate to population like SCs and STs.
Presently, the women have 33 percent reservations in Urban and Rural Local Bodies while SCs and STs have been given reservations based on population.
The Panchayat and Municipal elections can be held only after the OBC Commission submits its report followed by an exercise to be undertaken for deciding the Wards to be reserved for OBCs. The delimitation exercise, if required, can also be undertaken, the sources said.
The Parliament had in February this year cleared the bill for providing reservations to the OBCs in Panchayats, Municipalities, BDCs and DDCs.
Because of the reservations to OBCs for the first time in these bodies in Jammu and Kashmir, elections to Panchayats and Municipalities, which were due to be held in October-November last year, have been delayed.
