The government has set in motion the process for holding elections to three urban local bodies - Mandamarri, Palwancha and Manuguru.
Though formation of the three municipalities had been notified in the past, the government could not put in place elected bodies to govern them due to technical reasons, the main one being the location of these urban local bodies in the scheduled area.
The government, after elaborate exercise, had decided to utilise the extraordinary powers vested in the Governor to bring these municipalities under the jurisdiction of the Telangana Municipalities Act, 1965. “A notification in this direction has been issued on the lines of Odisha,” a senior official said.
The Government had obtained the consent of the Tribal Advisory Committee in making amendments, enabling the application of Telangana Municipalities Act in these local bodies.
At least 50% of seats/wards in these municipalities will be reserved for the Scheduled Tribes with 50% of them for women belonging to STs.
In the remaining seats/wards, reservations would be made for the Scheduled Castes in proportion with their population and one third of seats would be reserved for the Backward Classes on rotation basis. While reservation for seats/wards for women would be implemented on rotation basis, the post of chairman/chairperson of these municipal bodies would be earmarked exclusively for STs. According The municipal authorities had been asked to conduct door-to-door survey in these urban bodies to enumerate the exact population of STs, SCs and BCs so that a final decision on reserving the seats/wards could be taken.