HC to govt: Include Roorkee in final list of civic bodies with quota

The Uttarakhand high court on Friday directed the state government to include Roorkee Municipal Corporation in the final list of the civic bodies in which reservation status was decided and conduct its elections along with other local bodies.

The single bench of justice Sudhanshu Dhulia issued the direction after hearing a petition filed by Roorke based Sanjay Pal.

According to the petitioner, the state government had released the final list of municipal bodies in which reservation was finalised on May 11, but left out Roorkee municipal body. While issuing the list, the state government had sought objections from the public.

The petitioner claimed that according to the section 7(5) of the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, which applies to Uttarakhand also, the state government should decide the reservation status in all the municipal bodies together. “By leaving out the Roorkee municipal corporation, it seems the government wanted to delay the polls there,” he said.

The counsel for the state government apprised the court that earlier the court had stayed the non-inclusion of the two villages — Rampur and Padli Gurjar — by the state government in the Roorkee Municipal Corporation. However, the people of these villages want their areas to be included in the Roorkee Municipal Corporation.