HYDERABAD: The State government has submitted the reservation details of Panchayat Raj elections to the State Election Commission (SEC). The SEC may announce the poll schedule at any time.“We are ready for the conduct of the Panchayat Raj elections. We have prepared the reservations and published the same in the gazette, and submitted the details to the SEC. It is up to the SEC to announce the poll date,” a senior official told Express.

With 12,751 village panchayats going to polls, the State government had announced Rs 10 lakh incentive to those panchayats which elect their heads unanimously. The message to villages is that elect the panchayat sarpanches unanimously and get Rs 10 lakh for development of the villages, the official said.

However, if any village conducts an “auction” or forces some candidates to withdraw form the contest by terrorising them, the government would take a serious view of the situation. The SEC has already identified as many as 30 symbols for sarpanch candidates and 20 symbols for ward member candidates. As per the existing norms, if the population of the village is more than 5,000, a sarpanch candidate’s election expenditure is capped at Rs 2.5 lakh and if the population is less than 5,000, they can spend Rs 1.5 lakh.

The maximum expenditure limit for the ward member candidate will be Rs 50,000 in villages which have 5,000 and more population. If the population is less than 5,000, then the maximum expenditure limit will be Rs 30,000.